The tension was almost tangible, as Faye sat, crouched against the wall of the Van Hausen complex, Jet just to her right, breathing heavily in anticipation. Faye was doing just the opposite, holding her breath in unconscious fear of discovery, and found shortly that she was getting dizzy.

She forced her breath to come more evenly. Inhale. Exhale. . . calmly now. No need to get worked up yet.

"There'll be too much interference for you to get a signal in once we're inside," she said, finally, breaking the silence.

"I know," was Ed's reply. She sounded so tense, Faye noted, so grown up. For a moment, Faye felt incredibly old, remembering the light, carefree tones of the boneless preteen that used to come to her over her communicator. Ed sounded almost. . . responsible now. Almost an adult.

Faye was struck by the urge to tell the girl how very important she was. "You'd better get us a building schematic before we go in, then. Can you get us some satellite photos, while you're at it?" Faye said instead.

Ed knew all that stuff anyway. They were comrades, after all.

"Sure thing," there was ten seconds of hesitation, then, "there you go, both of you now have the whole layout stored in your communicators."

A brief flip, and a push of a button confirmed this.

"Good. . . how much longer before they realize their surveillance equipment is out?"

"Ten minutes more, maybe."

"Let's get in there," came Jet's gruff voice. Standing around outside was obviously making him nervous, because he was starting to fidget, and he'd just lit a new cigarette off the dying remains of it's predecessor. Jet wasn't usually a chain smoker.

"I couldn't agree more." Faye intoned. "Ready," this directed to Ed.

"Set," came the reply.

"Five," came Faye's voice, silky, and low.

"Four," Jet breathed.

"Three," Ed's voice, barely audible over the static.

The unmistakable bark that had to have been Ein.

Each of them heard the 'one' in their heads. That had been Spike's line.

Ed opened the door, and Faye and jet slipped in, separating immediately and wordlessly. This was all part of the plan, after all. Cover more ground. Get in and out faster. And neither one thought about what would happen if they got themselves into a situation that they couldn't get out of by themselves. It wouldn't happen. It couldn't, or they were both dead.

Faye took the path to the right, down a nondescript hallway, and watched her progress on the communicator. Ed., that clever little girl, had managed to upload a program that also automatically pinpointed her location, and traced the path she'd taken from the exit.

Good, that would make getting back out again easier. . . and it was a good thing to, because after wandering for ten minutes, everything was starting to look like everything else. Exam room here, Research lab there, specimens. Argh!

She was trying to work her way to a huge room three floors down, an area that was calling to her for some unknown reason. She followed, of course, she'd learned to trust her hunches. Still. . . she couldn't help but feel that all she was finding was a whole lot of nothing.

God, she hoped Jet was doing better.

Jet opened a door onto another dead end. Just a broom closet.

At present, Jet was very interested in finding a flight of stairs. Faye, he knew, would head down, so it made sense for him to devote his search to the upper floors. Unfortunately, he was having trouble finding a way up. The elevators were, of course, out of the question. With the security this place had, they'd know the second one was activated.

For that matter, the stairs weren't exactly risk free. Things like stairwells were all too often fraught with dangers like security cameras. And occasionally guards. But at least he wouldn't be a sitting duck in a stairwell. Too bad he couldn't find one.

Of course, he mused, he could always just check the map Ed had provided. It would certainly make things easier.

He sighed at his stupidity, and reached into his pocket to retrieve the communicator, flicking it open with one deft movement of his wrist.

A small red dot indicated himself, or so he presumed. Must use global positioning, Jet assumed, and wondered why the satellite signal wasn't getting interference when Ed couldn't get through to them. Must be Faye's cheep equipment. . . still. . . why hadn't Ed just hacked into the satellite, and used it to send her signal into the fortress they were now searching.

Unless the satellite was getting interference. . . that was it, it had to be! Ed couldn't use the satellite, so. . . so. . .

So the tracking was totally useless.

Okay, but the map was still good, at least. He could still use it to find his way, as long as he could pinpoint his current position. Alright, he was in a hallway, with a broom closet on his left, a computer lab on his right and an empty room, about 21x20 ten feet back.

He scanned the map until he found a likely looking set of rooms. If he was right the stairs should be just around the corner, and to the left.

He proceeded on, until he was standing in front of the door that he hoped let to the stairs, and cracked it open slightly.

A quick peek revealed that it was, indeed the stairs, and not only that, but there were no visible cameras. Could his luck get any better?

He was feeling quite proud of himself when a thought occurred to him.

"I hope Faye realized the GPS was on the fritz," he muttered.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Faye finally yelled, before hurling her communicator into a wall, and smashing it to bits. She regretted it the instant she saw what she'd done. Damn her temper. . . it was going to get her killed some day. Maybe this was it.

"Smooth Faye," she chided herself out loud, then groaned. Now she'd never be able to find the room she was looking for, let alone the way back out again afterward.

She closed her eyes, and slowly, a smile spread across her face. Yes, why not. After all, her instincts had never lead her astray before. At least not very far astray, she assured herself. Then she took off down the hall.

Well. . . once again, a short chapter. . . sorry, I know where the story is going, just not quite how it's getting there yet. Meanwhile, I don't want everyone waiting to know what's up. Besides, I thought you guys could use a little plot.