'This place is very peculiar,' Benny thought to himself, looking around the cafeteria. On the surface it looked normal enough, which was more proof to him of the genius of the man behind it. Somehow he managed to make his minions look exactly like normal men and women going about their jobs, in the most convincing cover he'd ever seen. He'd visited a lot of enterprises over the years running deliveries for the boss, but he'd never seen one that looked so innocuous.

But it clearly wasn't. They'd just delivered what was some sort of shipment of arms to the guy who ran the place, into a purpose-built armory if he was any judge. One that was protected by some weird Tinker armor, which he had a pretty shrewd idea wouldn't be at all easy to get through. That took money and contacts, as well as a lot of careful thinking.

There was also the matter of the wanted Parahuman Rachel Lindt running around the place without any attempt to disguise herself. This Zephron character, who was the most obvious enforcer he'd ever seen, looking like he could just pick you up by the neck and squeeze until your head came off with a wet pop, had merely greeted her with a familiar nod and gone on his way. The guy was definitely clued up and there was no way he didn't know who she was.

From what he could remember her power was something to do with controlling dogs, or making them mutate, or something like that. She'd been in the middle of a whole pile of the animals, several of whom were very large and very dangerous looking. Presumable she was part of the security of the place. He'd seen other people with dogs wandering around, also looking like security to him, and they'd definitely been watching everything going on very carefully.

The back of his neck hadn't stopped itching the entire time they'd been here.

That lizard-girl or whatever she was, part of the reptilian Family who lived in the bay from what he'd heard, had gone past before as well, and had stopped to talk to several of the other people around the place, none of whom had looked surprised at all. She was obviously another one who was familiar to them.

The creature had looked, even with her very non-human body, cheerful and relaxed, but he couldn't help but notice the teeth, and the claws, and the armor, and the way she moved which spoke of a hell of a lot of combat training, based on people he'd known in the past. He got the impression that it would be a bad idea to annoy her.

With muscle like that, Boss Hebert wasn't someone who was going to back down in the face of trouble. He'd been able to see it in the man's eyes.

Benny had known a lot of hard and dangerous men over the years. Some of them looked at you like they were trying to decide where to bury the body. Some like they were working out whether to just make you vanish on the way home. A few like you were scum.

Hebert had looked thoughtful, like he was trying to decide if Benny and Rudy could be trusted to keep their mouths shut. Intelligent, that was it. Not someone who took hasty action.

No, if he came after you, it was after very careful thought and with a definite plan, and never without reason.

Not many bosses were like that in his experience. But the ones that were, were by a long way the most dangerous, and the ones that lasted.

Like old Antonio.

He was, by all accounts, a pleasant man to deal with, respectful and polite, and very calm. Right up to the point you pushed him too far.

Then you never came back. People simply stopped talking about you.

It didn't happen often, and not for years now. People respected Antonio and he seldom needed to make an example these days.

Word got around.

This Hebert guy made him think there was more than a little commonality there. He was probably someone who would very deliberately let you pay out enough rope to hang yourself with, merely warning you politely that it was unlikely to end well. And if you decided not to listen…?

Your problem.

He shivered a little.

No. The man was careful, deliberate, calm, intelligent, and oh so dangerous. No one he wanted to get on the bad side of.

Zephron was obviously sent to monitor them as well as make sure they didn't see anything they shouldn't. The guy was watching them the whole time, discreetly but carefully. Another smart one.

Boss Hebert clearly liked intelligent minions, who could act without requiring direct orders. Again, an example of careful planning.

It was really impressive, in a creepy sort of way.

Glancing at Rudy he could see his friend was thinking something similar from the pensive expression on his face. He knew the guy like a brother and they'd worked together for years. Rudy was smart and careful, which was why he'd survived three separate hijackings, turning the tables on two of them in a fairly brutal manner.

No one stole his cargo if he could avoid it. He took his responsibilities seriously.

But now he was definitely cautious and nervous. He kept glancing around, his eyes darting here and there, like he was waiting for the attack. Benny didn't think that, if there was anything like that going to happen, it would happen here.

No, it would happen when they least expected it.

On the other hand, they hadn't done anything that he was aware of to upset the boss man, and they hadn't seen anything either, except a quick glint of oiled metal that surely wasn't enough to warrant something permanent being done?

Benny swallowed a little dryly.

"Getting another coffee," he said after a moment, standing up. Zephron and Rudy both looked at him, then went back to their food. He walked over to the line by the serving area, waiting for his turn at the heavy-duty coffee machine.

A few seconds later, a conversation behind him made him glance back for a second, to see a big if young man, around eighteen or so, standing a couple of people back next to a shorter and skinnier guy roughly a year younger. The bigger one was black, although nothing like as dark-skinned as Zephron, while the shorter one was white, with curly black hair.

"I'm telling you, man, that little fucker got what he deserved," the shorter kid said quietly, gesturing. "Boom. Right in the back of the head. I could see brains go everywhere through the scope. It was glorious, it took me nearly twenty minutes to set up the kill."

"You really are a child sometimes, Alec," the tall guy said, sounding mildly amused and slightly tired. He looked like he'd been working hard and was covered in sawdust, Benny noticed with he risked another glance back, his eyes wide. "All that excitement over one shot."

"Hey, Brian, it took me ages to set up! I was hunting that last guy for nearly an hour and he almost got me first. But I did it, they're not going to forget what I did in a hurry. I was down to only three rounds as well." The kid, Alec, shrugged, looking satisfied. "Some people just need to be shot. Sometimes several times. He was getting on my nerves anyway, he kept mouthing off."

"Which is exactly what people say about you," Brian replied.

"Only once," Alec snickered in a dark way that made Benny shiver. The sheer glee in his voice was horrifying given the subject. It was very apparent that none of the 'dock workers' seemed even slightly concerned, or actually interested. Like that kid talked about sniping people all the time…

'I think I want to go home,' Benny mused uncomfortably.

He recognized the names, they were two of the ones Zephron had mentioned as those who would be trained on whatever was in those crates. Their 'talents' would appear to be related to sniping people from a distance, at least in the case of the shorter one, making him wonder what the job was going to be, then very hastily stop wondering.

He did not need, or want, to know.

Reaching the coffee machine, he refilled his cup, then added sugar, before turning to head back to the table.

He almost walked into a wall of black scales that had appeared behind him. Stopping dead, he stared at it, then slowly looked up, only his head moving. Much higher than seemed reasonable, a pair of glowing green eyes with reptilian slitted pupils were looking down at him, a distinct expression of slightly alien amusement visible in them. Below that in a long muzzle were far more teeth of a very substantial size, extremely sharp ones as well, which were bared slightly in what looked like the thing's interpretation of a friendly smile.

The lizard-like creature, standing on its rear legs, was very not human, yet at the same time gave off an impression of high intelligence and good humor. It was wearing, he noticed absently, a form-fitting body harness festooned with pockets over the torso, as well as a metallic necklace of some sort around the base of the long neck also color matched to the scales like the harness.

When it moved slightly, a ripple of deep scarlet ran over the scales, relieving the pure light-absorbing black for a moment.

He shivered involuntarily.

That color was so obviously perfect for merging into the dark… You'd never know it was there until it was too late.

The damn thing must have weighed at least half a ton and was well over seven feet tall, a long tail behind it resting on the floor. It looked like some sort of alien combat dinosaur, far more solid and dangerous than the comparatively slender and human-scale lizard-girl that he'd seen earlier, but also apparently from the same place.

The Family, of course.

Behind it was another one, almost identical in overall body shape, but with blue-violet scales that had deep purple highlights. This one gave off a slightly different feeling, like it was examining him carefully to work out how many of his parts could be reused, although in a purely speculative and non-hostile manner. It was also apparently mildly amused.

"Sorry, I just wanted to get some coffee," the black one rumbled in a voice nearly as deep as Zephron's but clearly female. "I didn't mean to get in the way."

The purple one said something in a weird language that consisted mostly of hisses with a few growling gurgles mixed in, utterly unlike anything Benny had ever heard before, and so alien-sounding it sent a thrill of atavistic terror down his spine. He couldn't help it, the sound tripped something deep in his mind that was gibbering at him and screaming 'DANGER.'

Suppressing the urge to bolt with an effort of supreme will, trained and honed over the years of working in dangerous situations for dangerous people, he swallowed, then nodded. "That's fine, miss, I wasn't looking where I was going. My apologies."

The giant lizard smiled more widely. "No worries," she said, stepping aside lightly. The speed and surety of motion was all out of proportion for something so big and heavy. "See you around." She scanned him again for a second. "Benny."

His eyes wide, he wondered how she knew his name, but decided that it was best not to ask. Nodding back to her he walked past, his back stiff from terror, and headed for the table where both Rudy and Zephron were watching him. His friend with shock in his eyes and Zephron with an evaluating look, that changed a little as he sat down and calmly stirred his coffee to an approving one.

Inside he was shaking wildly, but he managed to fake it on the outside well enough to fool most people.

Looking back to the coffee machine he saw that the two lizards were chatting in low voices as the black one filled an enormous mug, four times the normal size, and added some milk. The two kids who had been behind him, the sniper and his woodworking friend, were sipping their own coffee and also talking to the reptiles without a care in the world.

Glancing at Rudy, he saw his friend was slightly gaping, his skin paler than normal. When Benny looked around the room to see the reactions of the other people there, he wasn't entirely surprised to see no one other than them was actually paying any more attention to the creatures in their midst than to any other 'dock worker' present.

No, he decided as he finished his meal. There was definitely something very peculiar going on at the Brockton Bay DWU, and the man behind it all was someone who deserved great respect.

From a safe distance.

"Christ," Rudy sighed loudly, when they were half a mile from the gate of the DWU, on the return trip. He was shaking.

"That was… horrifying," he added soberly.

"It sure wasn't what I was expecting," Benny admitted quietly. "What the hell is that place?"

"I have no fucking idea, I don't want to know, and if you have any sense you don't want to know either," his old friend remarked, piloting the much lighter truck around the potholes. "Nothing good can come of getting involved in Boss Hebert's business."

"Man sure seems competent," Benny said.

"In a deeply scary way, yeah." Rudy took a few deep breaths and visibly pulled himself together. "I met old Antonio once, did I ever tell you?"

"No." Benny was a little puzzled by the apparent change of subject.

"Yeah. Few years back, I had to make a delivery to New York. The man himself turned up to inspect the cargo. No idea what it was, it had come down from Canada and I think it was originally from Europe. He seemed pleased with it, anyway. Gave me a big bonus and personally thanked me. Very polite and gracious, proper manners, you know? Not like you get much these days."

"OK."

"But..." Rudy swallowed a little. "There was something in his eyes that said, 'Do not fuck with this man.' Nothing obvious, he just looked like a nice old man, like your favorite grandfather, you know? But a grandfather who knows where the bodies are buried because he buried them. Probably after sighing regretfully, following a lot of provocation, then shaking his head sadly. But he's not someone to disrespect. Not twice anyway."

"That's what I've heard, sure," Benny agreed.

"Boss Hebert reminds me of a much younger version of the same sort of guy in some ways. Smart and careful, and polite too. But with a point that if you cross it, you'll regret it. Probably not for long."

They exchanged a glance, then went back to looking out the front.

"What I'm saying is, don't tell anyone anything about what we saw there. I don't think it would be safe if he found out, and I don't think it would take long for him to find out."

"I was thinking the same thing," he admitted. "I don't know what they're doing there and I don't really want to. The illusion of a legit business is amazing, though. You'd never know without looking harder."

Rudy grunted in agreement. They kept driving, snaking their way through the maze of roads in this section of the city, Benny looking at the various junkies lying around the place and wondering uneasily how many of them were reporting back to the place they'd just left.

And how many might be lizards under their tattered coats and piles of old cardboard…

"What the hell were those reptile things?" he asked after another couple of minutes. "I nearly crapped myself when I turned around and practically walked into that black one."

"No fucking idea. Something to do with the Family, but I don't know much about them," Rudy sighed. "God, they were huge!"

"And fast. The way they moved… way faster than a human. Some sort of Tinker thing maybe?"

"I heard they were aliens," his friend said, sounding worried. "I thought that was bullshit right up to about half an hour ago."

"I heard they were demons." He shrugged, as the other man glanced at him with a frown. "I'm not religious but that sounded pretty far out. Now… don't know. At least she was polite."

"Wouldn't want to try to make a move on Boss Hebert's territory with that sort of backup," his companion noted wisely. "Never mind how many soldiers he could field, I bet just those two could wipe out most other operations. Pretty sure this city isn't going to get too much trouble from outside operators."

"Nope." Benny grinned for a moment. "Probably not. Can you imagine even that smaller blue one coming after you in the dark?"

Rudy shuddered hard enough to jerk the wheel, the truck jolting, then straightening out. "Oh, thanks a fucking bunch for that thought, Benny."

"You're welcome," he replied. Looking around again, he frowned. "Where the fuck are we? I don't recognize this area, we didn't come this way."

"I think I turned right when I should have turned left," Rudy grumbled, slowing and peering about them. "This sure isn't the way back to the freeway. Damn, this place is a fucking maze."

After another quarter of a mile, they pulled over to the side of the road and Benny rummaged around in the overhead storage rack for a street map of Brockton Bay. Eventually finding it, he unfolded it with much cursing and a bit of a struggle, both of them scanning the wrinkled paper trying to work out their position.

"That's the DWU compound, I think," Rudy said a little doubtfully, prodding a location near the water with one finger. "It's way bigger than the map shows."

"Looks like half these buildings here are gone now. This map must be pretty old. OK, if that's where we were… over here is the freeway where we want to go. So… we must be… here, maybe?"

They both looked around, then back at the map. "This doesn't match at all," his companion muttered. "That road over there isn't this one here, I don't think." Tracing the route from their delivery point along to the freeway very slowly, he sighed in frustration. "That's where I went wrong. I should have taken the next left, then turned right. We must be a couple of miles off course. Now how the hell do we get back?"

"We could ask someone for directions," Benny suggested.

"Who? One of those junkies? If they're real they probably won't know what day it is never mind where they are, and if they're Hebert's men, we'll get laughed at if we're lucky."

"What about that guy?" Benny pointed at an old but big guy who was walking towards them down the crumbling sidewalk, clad in an ancient pea coat and giving off an air of a man who had a definite destination, one that probably included beer. He looked like a sailor or something, very solidly built and sinewy despite being probably well on the wrong side of sixty, his hair iron-gray under a wool cap.

Even the junkies moved out of his way as he stomped along, clearly not keen on causing him any problems.

"OK. Why not?" Rudy shrugged. "Worth a shot. The sooner I'm out of this damn place and back on the road the happier I'll be. New Jersey is way safer."

"Lot less lizards as well," Benny pointed out, rolling down the window. "Hey, old-timer," he called as the man got close enough. "We're sort of lost. Mind giving us a moment of your time?" He held up a twenty, one of the ones from the twelve hundred bucks in his bonus from Boss Hebert.

"Name's Erwin, not old-timer," the elder grunted, stopping a few feet away and giving him an assessing look with sharp eyes. "You boys aren't local, are you?"

"No, we're up from New Jersey. Delivery to the DWU. But we got turned around on the way out and we're kind of stuck. What's the quickest way out of here back to the freeway?"

Erwin came closer, peering at Benny closely, then looking past him at his friend. The weather-beaten face cracked into a slight smile. "DWU, hmm? Saw the girls?"

"Girls?" Benny echoed, puzzled.

"Big scaly ones. Real big, although you probably didn't see the biggest one. Kaiju's not around right now." Erwin looked satisfied when both of them twitched. "Thought so. You still have a bit of that deer in the headlights look. Everyone gets it. Half ton intelligent lizards from the sea kind of fuck with your worldview, even when they're just being friendly."

"You can fucking say that again," Rudy mumbled.

"Which ones did you see?" the old man asked curiously.

"Um..." Benny glanced at his colleague, who shrugged. Maybe this was a test?

"A tall skinny one in armor, sort of bright blue."

"That's Saurial. She was the first. Nice girl, very helpful, weird sense of humor. Hell of a fighter, too. Some sort of Tinker or something as well, from what I've heard. They all are in some ways, they make things all the damn time." Erwin looked approving.

"A pair of them, much bigger, with green eyes. One black, one sort of purple-blue."

"Metis and Ianthe. Sisters, cousins of Saurial and the others, I think. They're both healers and have even weirder senses of humor than Saurial does." Erwin grinned for a second. "You should hear some of the things I've heard down the tavern."

"I'm glad I haven't," Benny said faintly.

"No others?"

"How many are there?"

"In total? No idea. Got the impression that there's probably an entire city of them out there somewhere." Erwin looked very amused in a craggy manner as both the men in the truck paled a lot. "But up here, there's Raptaur, she was the second one to turn up, then Kaiju of course. Nice lass, but very, very big."

"I saw the news," Rudy commented, his eyes wide. "She looked fucking huge."

"Huge isn't even close," Erwin chuckled. "I was probably the first one to meet her, out in the bay a while back. Popped up out of the water and asked which way to the city. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Saw her playing with the tanker before that, moving thousands of tons of ship like it was a kids toy." He watched as they both went a funny color. "Could pick this truck up and juggle it."

"Why the hell is anyone still in this damn city?" Rudy demanded, sounding shaken.

Erwin shrugged. "People round these parts are used to weird shit. Not that weird for the most part but it wasn't as big a surprise as you'd think. Everyone sort of got used to it more or less. Even so they keep doing new weird things, and they definitely attract other even stranger ones. Place is a lot more interesting these days. And safer. Gangs have mostly gone quiet."

He smirked at them. "Ever since Raptaur beat the shit out of Hookwolf and made it look easy, the E88 stays way the fuck away from the docks. No one's seen Lung in weeks. Know why?"

Benny shook his head, as did his friend. Erwin leaned closer to the window. "We think Kaiju ate him."

"Shit!"

Erwin pulled back, apparently contented with the reaction he'd got. He shrugged a little. "Or maybe not. Anyway, rumor is that Raptaur had a fight with him, then decided to let her big sister deal with the guy. He was ramped to hell at the time, like he was back in Japan when Leviathan turned up, from what I hear. Even the entire Protectorate here would pull back in the face of that. They have before. But..."

Benny couldn't help it, when the man trailed off, he asked, "But?" even though he didn't really want to know.

"But, that was the last anyone's heard from the guy. Entire gang went quiet too. Same night his lieutenant disappeared as well. Word around here is that they were hassling the DWU or some friends of theirs, the Family got pissed off, and..." He shrugged again. "Not a good idea to piss the Family off. Hookwolf was lucky. He only got half drowned, then dumped into a cell. Raptaur was in a good mood. Girl's got style, though, knocked seven bells out of the brute with a hammer. Could have killed him any time she wanted. I've seen the video, it's fucking hilarious."

"I take it you don't like the guy," Benny said dryly, his voice unsteady.

Erwin spat on the ground. "Nazi scum. Dad had enough trouble with the fuckers in France, don't like seeing them here. Kaiser's one thing, he's scum but he's smart, polite scum. Hookwolf is just the sort of guy who should have been strangled at birth. Save everyone trouble in the long run. Got no time for Nazis. Even Lung was an improvement, the man's crazy, but stay out his face and he normally stayed out of yours."

He thought for a moment, then added wisely, "May well have got right inside Kaiju's face. In among all the teeth. Seen her eat a boat, you know? Impressive."

"Jesus." Rudy moaned the word, looking like he really wanted the garrulous old sailor to shut the fuck up. Benny was thinking much the same, heartily regretting his suggestion to ask for directions.

People in Brockton Bay were clearly insane, staying here with all this shit going on. And somehow, Boss Hebert was right in the middle of it.

A thought struck him, making him suck in a breath. 'Or… is he actually behind it? Take out the main gangs with a couple of strategic hits, make it look like it was some weird cape family doing it, but who gains from it?' He shook his head in renewed respect. 'Man's a fucking genius. And has balls the size of coconuts to pull this off.'

"How do we get out of this insane asylum, Erwin?" Rudy asked, sounding like he really wanted to be doing seventy miles an hour away from this entire city as soon as possible. Benny could understand, despite his impressed sense of wonder at the sheer beauty of the Hebert man's master plan, he'd be happier when it was in the next state.

Or country, ideally.

"Let's see that map," Erwin replied, gesturing for the thing. Benny folded it quickly to a size small enough to hand through the window, the local area visible in it. "Got a pen?"

"Here." Rudy handed one to Benny, who passed it over.

"OK. You're here, right? You want to get to here, that's the nearest freeway entrance. So you follow this path, like this." Erwin drew a line winding through a whole series of roads, turn after turn describing a more or less straight path several miles through the dock area and the surrounding commercial district. "Little bit roundabout, some of these areas you don't want to go through, not if you want to keep your truck. This road is like a tank trap, you'll never get through, so avoid it. This one here has a collapsed building across it from something that fuckwit Skidmark did when he got into it with Kaiser a couple of months ago. Don't go down here, you'll die. Definitely don't go down here, you'll wish you died. This road is one way, and the traffic on this one is a fucking pain."

He kept talking and drawing, both amazing Benny with his memory, and horrifying him with the casual way he described lethal hazard after lethal hazard. Eventually he stopped with the pen on the freeway. "And there's your on ramp. Easy, right?"

Without a word, Benny accepted the map and pen back, then handed over the twenty, and another one for luck.

"Thanks," Rudy said. Erwin stepped back, giving them a casual salute.

"Drive careful, boys. Watch out for the cops, the state police are bastards around here. Couple of nice New Jersey 'deliverymen' don't want to get mixed up with them." The way he said it, along with the evil grin, make Benny sigh a little. The man was apparently not entirely as nuts as he appeared.

"Thanks, Erwin," he replied.

"No problems," the old man smirked. "Have a good trip home. Me, I'm off to Pat's for a cold one." He looked at the forty dollars in his hand. "On you." Tucking the cash into his pocket, he turned and resumed his original route as they watched, then exchanged a glance.

Benny rolled up the window, put the map on the dashboard, then ran his hands over his face and sighed.

"Next time when the boss says 'You two are going to Brockton Bay,' can we please say no?" he asked, his face still covered. "This place is weird."

"Then he'll ask why, and we can't really tell him without getting Boss Hebert pissed with us," Rudy pointed out with a scowl, restarting the vehicle. "Between our people and his, I'll take ours getting angry any day. They won't send a lizard large enough to eat the truck after us. Just someone with a gun. I can deal with that."

"Not to mention it would offend Antonio, which is nearly as bad," Benny groaned. "Fuck my life. Sometimes it's not worth getting out of bed in the morning."

They shared a look of weary commiseration then began following the route their local guide had produced. Both of them thinking that the bonus they'd been given wasn't nearly enough...

The truck's brakes squealed as it stopped. Both men looked out the windshield at the stack of burned out cars placed neatly across the road, then at each other. "Oh, for fuck's sake!" Rudy sighed. "Now what? We nearly escaped this nuthouse and now some joker's covering the damn road with old wrecks?"

"Might be an ambush," Benny said uneasily, looking both ways, then leaning down to peer up at the surrounding buildings. There was no one at all visible but the back of his neck was itching again.

"Someone with a death wish, then, considering we're still on Hebert's turf. This isn't his style, it's too crude." Rudy pointed at marks on the road. "Used a forklift or something to put those there."

"Huh. Wonder why?"

"Don't know, don't care," his friend muttered, glancing at the map which he'd propped up on the radio. "Now we have to go back nearly a mile to get around this."

A tap on the window made both of them jump violently and whirl around, then gape.

"Hey, you guys need a hand?" a very disturbing voice hissed, apparently emanating from the empty cloak that was standing on thin air three feet off the ground outside Benny's window, the glass in between them not having any noticeable effect on the sound. "The Merchants blocked this road a couple of weeks ago trying to hijack a chemical tanker, no one's got around to clearing it away yet."

The voice was cheerfully weird, sounding female but entirely not like a person. The fact that they could see quite clearly that the hood of the cloak contained nothing but air was more than a little worrying. As was the odd leathery clawed hand that stuck out from the cloth, making a gesture at the barrier in front of them. Whatever was in there, presuming anything was, it was no more human than those lizards.

Possibly less so.

After a very long moment, and a look at Rudy's wide eyes, he rolled the window down very slowly. "Uh… we don't really want to go all the way back to the last turning," he admitted in a weak voice. "If you could help it would be appreciated."

"Sure, no trouble." She, or it, or whatever it was, stepped back, still on nothing, inspecting the truck for a moment, then turned her… head? to look at the barrier of a dozen or so smashed up cars.

Which promptly moved out of the way in the most disturbing fashion that Rudy had ever seen.

The vehicles visibly distorted, the stack splitting in half, each part moving to the side and rotating impossibly until it was nearly vertical, leaving a strip of open road between them more than large enough for the truck to pass through. They gaped in shock for several seconds, then stared at the petite thing which seemed pleased with itself. "There you go, guys," she hissed happily. "You can go through, it's perfectly safe."

Both of them looked at each other, then with a swallow, Rudy put the truck in gear.

"Thanks, um..."

"Cloak," the cloak said helpfully.

"Cloak. That's very… nice… of you."

The clawed hand waved dismissively. "It's not a problem, trust me. Someone should have moved those things weeks ago. I'll sort it out. See you."

Benny nodded without being able to think what to say, rolling the window up, then moving his head to stare straight ahead. He didn't blink as the truck passed between the distorted piles of wrecks, or for that matter, breathe, until they were a couple of hundred yards past that point.

Neither man said another word until they were on the freeway, doing exactly the speed limit and wishing it was considerably higher.

Even then, it was only for Rudy to say, "Glad we got some more coffee. I'm not stopping for anything until we're home."

Benny merely sighed agreement, leaned back in the seat, and closed his eyes.

Looking up as someone sat across from him in the old diner, just across the road from the boss' front business, a pawn shop, Benny nodded to the man who'd joined him. Alphonse was another member of his organization, an old friend from school. The man motioned to Clarice, the waitress, who came over with his regular coffee and a sandwich, putting them in front of him with a quick smile. Both men watched her walk off, before turning to each other.

"How'd that job go the other day, up north?" Al asked curiously, picking up his coffee and tasting it, before adding some sugar. He cocked an eyebrow at his friend. "Haven't seen Rudy since you guys got back. Never been to Brockton Bay, but I've heard it's a bit odd."

Benny laughed hollowly. "Bit odd. Yeah." He shook his head. "I could think of other things to call it."

"See any capes?"

He stared hard at his friend. "Don't ask. Seriously."

Al looked curious, sipping his drink, then ate half his sandwich.

"What was the client like? In our business, or something else?"

Benny sighed. Putting his coffee down, he leaned forward, his friend doing likewise. "Look, Al, we've known each other since we were six. So listen." He took a breath, then spoke in a low, urgent voice.

"I can't tell you what I saw. I didn't see anything. I can't tell you what I heard. I didn't hear anything. Got me?"

Al nodded slowly.

"Good." Benny leaned back, finishing his coffee in one drag, then putting the cup down. "One piece of advice, though. You'll sleep a hell of a lot better if you stay away from Brockton Bay. Trust me on that."

He stood, dropping some cash on the table, then walked past the other man. Stopping, he leaned over again, whispering, "And if you hear the name 'Hebert', run. But don't say it for god's sake."

With that, he left.

Al watched him go, made a mental note not to mention anything he'd heard, and went back to his sandwich.