The office was quiet when they arrived. Nadia led Julia into the briefing room and pulled up a chair for her niece. Grateful for the excuse to rest her leg, Julia slumped into the seat.

Marshall was the next one to arrive, followed by Sloane and Dixon. Weiss and Sydney were the last to enter the room. Sydney was still pale, and she moved stiffly.

"Welcome back," Sloane said when they were all seated. "Our mission to recover the Scharpinsky Scrolls was, although not without its drawbacks, a definite success. We have the Scharpinsky Scrolls and a two-agent team consisting of Mariel Hemingway and Joseph Brockmann are translating them now."

Julia made a face at the mention of Agent Hemingway.

"Now that we have the Scrolls, we will be able to fully cooperate with NOCRS and share Ovganova's security system. Julia, you will be working with Agent Finch to break and decipher the system for the use of NOCRS." Arvin looked expectantly at the door, where a petite blond agent was waiting. "Agent Keppler, is Agent Finch here yet?"

"Yes, sir," the female agent said. "She stopped to talk to Director Findlay."

Within a moment, a well-dressed dark-haired woman in a motorized wheelchair came through the door of the briefing room. Julia's face lit up as she recognized her hacking buddy. "Finch!"

"Hey, Julia," the woman said. To the others she said, "Agents Weiss, Bristow, and Dixon. Howdy, Marshall. And of course, Arvin."

"Pleased to see you," Arvin said, smiling. "Agent Finch, you and Julia can use the secondary conference room."

Julia stood, grabbing her backpack, and led Finch out of the room.

"As for the rest of you, Agents Weiss and Dixon will be keeping surveillance over the Society of the Closed Fist. Agent Bristow, you and Nadia will be remaining here to translate the Scrolls. Any questions?'

"How much do we know about Agent Finch?" Weiss asked.

"She was CIA for twelve years until an enemy sniper forced her to join NOCRS," Sloane said. "She's a good agent. She and Julia have been working together for… a year now, Sydney?"

Sydney nodded.

"Go to work," Sloane said with a smile.

They dispersed, Sydney and Nadia going slowly down the hallway to a research room where two agents were bent over the Scrolls. "Agent Hemingway, Agent Brockmann, how are things going?" Nadia asked.

"Very well!" Agent Brockmann said heartily, peering up at the two women through his thick glasses. "We've done almost all the first Scroll."

Agent Hemingway looked up and recognized Sydney. "You're Julia's mother, aren't you?"

Sydney nodded, her eyes daring Agent Hemingway to say anything else.

"Here, Agent Bristow, why don't you work on the second Scroll," Agent Brockmann suggested.

Sydney complied, taking a seat next to Agent Brockmann. Nadia sat across from them. Within a few moments, all were hard at work.

Down in the conference room, Sloane had stopped in to check on Finch and Julia. Both were typing at great speeds. Julia was speaking almost as rapidly as she was typing. "The system doesn't show any of the particulars of the Kreszny system – remember that one, Latvia, two months ago? – but it's got a back door easily opened with a secondary cross-algorithm and…"

"Take a breath, Julia," Sloane said from the doorway.

Finch laughed. "It's okay. I'll be here for awhile, Julia. You don't have to tell me everything at once."

"How long will you be here?" Julia asked.

"At least two weeks. We just finished the Grosny-Michaelov system, so I've got time to spend on this."

"There's more work to be done," Sloane interjected. "You need to create a working version of this system and prepare it for a sale to Bolivar Lanu at the end of the week."

"Bolivar Lanu," Finch murmured. "Is he still around?"

Sloane nodded. "Unfortunately. And the Blackthorn Contingency has shown interest in buying a copy of the system, because apparently Ovganova uses it on all his warehouses and the storage facility where he is keeping various treatises and books he stole from the Kaplon Archives and the Office of National Fortitude and Civil Responsibility in Moldavia."

"What if we don't sell it to him?" Julia asked.

Sloane through for a moment. "If we don't sell the system to Bolivar Lanu, then we'd have to provide him with a hacker."

"You work with Lanu?" finch asked disbelievingly.

Sloane nodded. "It was a sacrifice we had to make. Lanu has proved to be a valuable ally."

"You'd give him me?" Julia asked suddenly.

Sloane smiled a little warily. "No, of course not."

"Would you?"

"No. We don't have to," Sloane said. "If you're done with the system, we're going to break for lunch."

He left and Finch rolled away from the computer. "Why aren't you at school? It's Monday, after all."

"No school today. Teacher conferences." Julia frowned. "I forgot to tell Mom."

Finch smiled. "You better inform her of that. I wouldn't want to be around to face the consequences when she figures out you 'forgot' to tell her."

Julia groaned and took off down the hallway. Sydney, Marshall, and Dixon were seated at the table in the briefing room, dividing out sandwiches and chips.

"Um, Mom," Julia said, "there's… uh… conferences today. At school." She fished in her pocket and pulled out a wadded-up green piece of paper.

Sydney took it and read it slowly. "My conference is at 1:37," she said. "That's twenty-one minutes from right now. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"I… forgot?"

Sydney sighed and stood up. "Come on," she said. "Let's go."