Alex was up early, yet again. He hadn't been able to sleep past sunrise in years. Not that he was really interested in moving. Lying there with Dawn's head pillowed on his shoulder had him utterly relaxed, almost a foreign feeling, and he was reveling in the feeling. Absently he ran his fingers up and down Dawn's arm as he planned his day.

Finally after an hour he gently rolled Dawn over and crawled out of bed. Dawn lifted her head and blearily looked for the alarm clock. Finding it was only 7:30 she dropped her head and mumbled into her pillow "S'to Early, more sleep."

"Go ahead and sleep, I'm going to run a few errands. I'll be back around one and we can go for lunch before meeting Buffy and Wills OK."

"Mmmm. One lunch eating fluffy pills."

Alex smiled. "Get some more sleep," and with that he walked out of the bedroom.

~~~~**~~~~~

Making his way to the kitchen he started looking to scrounge something up for breakfast, before remembering that he had used the last of the eggs last night. There was really no food in the house. His past self had been spending so much time at Casa del Summers and hadn't bought groceries in quite a while. Even the bread was looking a little fuzzy. He'd just have to add groceries to his list of things to do.

Giving up on breakfast he began searching through a drawer filled with paper. First out was a wallet. A quick check verified that his backup wallet had his debit and credit cards as well as $50 cash. The next item took considerably more time to find. Finally pulling out a ripped corner of a page with a phone number he grinned. "Some days it really pays to be a packrat." Punching the number into his cell he waited for a response.

"Huckleberry…. How's the wife treating you?"

"Glad to hear. Look remember when you left you said if we ever needed something with more of a kick than a crossbow to call."

"No it's nothing that serious, well yet anyways. This is more of a Boy Scout list"

"Yes I know you are not an arms dealer, but this stuff could end up saving our lives, and I'd rather deal with you guys then risk robbing the armory again."

"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"

"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place…Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"

"You'll take them, great I'll see you in two days. Oh and you'll be happy to hear that the 17 situation has been resolved. Although, I expect to see some fallout from Buff later in the day."

"Yah I thought that would make your day. It certainly made mine. Well I have to go, give Sam a kiss for me."

Heading out to start his shopping Alex was surprised to find his SUV in it's parking stall. One of the Scooby's must have returned it for him, as it wasn't there last night. Approaching the vehicle he remembered that his keys were in an alternate dimension. 'I don't suppose they could arrest me for stealing my own vehicle, and I'm certainly not going to carry all the groceries I'll need. A few seconds of work the SUV was running and he drove off to start his day.

Eight am on a Sunday most shops would normally be closed. However Sunnydale was far from normal. Quite a few shopkeepers chose to open on Sundays rather than subject their customers, and themselves, to the risk of late night shopping. It was with some trepidation that he made his way to the magic box. He wasn't sure what Anya had been told of the situation, but he didn't expect her to remain ignorant for long. Despite her flaky attitude he knew she was incredibly observant. If he had anyone to bet with he'd put money on Anya picking up on the narrow tan line where his wedding band had rested.

Upon entering the magic shop Anya's greeting was pretty much as expected all smiles until a fateful glance at his hand. "Xander I thought it was 'till death do you part' not 'till I find myself in another dimension'. Who is she and what is to stop me from going and offering her my services."

"First off Anya I don't think Dawn would have any need for your services, we have settled for engaged until we can have a proper ceremony performed."

"You and little Dawnie isn't that sweet."

"Yah me and not so little Dawnie. You know five years passed for us. She's now technically older than Willow."

"I figured something like that. You never responded well to the schoolgirl or cheerleader outfits I wore. So she'd be twenty-two now. I bet she kicks some serious butt too. You always liked strong women."

"She kicks more butt than Buffy." Alex pasted a wide grin on his face. "She doesn't have Buffy's mystical strength and speed, but her technique is incredible. Plus she's more cunning than Buffy, willing to use the right weapon for the job. Last night she held her sister off while I finish Spike. She backed me over her own sister, a position I'm sorry I put her in and hope never to again." Alex finished his grin slipping a little.

"What I came over for though was not to stop you from going all vengeancey on me, although that is a big plus, I was hoping that you knew something about the first."

"Oh the First and I go way back. D'Hoffryn and him had a running feud for millennia. Why back in the 1300's I was with D'Hoffryn when we stormed the gates to the Firsts realm. We couldn't get in though. There wasn't an energy source powerful enough to breach his gates. Did set the old boy back a few hundred years as we butchered over half the demons loyal to him." With a dreamy look she finished. "Those were the days."

Alex blinked. He had been hoping for some second hand information. Bits and pieces of things Anya had picked up over her 1100 years as a vengeance demon. First hand information was more than he could have hoped for.

"Anya, do you think you could prepare a briefing on the first. Strengths, weaknesses, minions, usual tactics, goals, long term plans whatever you can think of. I'd like you to present it to the Scoobies tomorrow, say eight before Buff takes the potentials on patrol."

"Well I'm pretty busy, and it might interfere with people practicing their capitalistic rights."

"I'll compensate you for your time. Say 500 Euro"

"Euro's that's foreign currency, I'll have to pay the exchange on that. You'll have to do better if you pay in Euros."

"Fine, eight hundred should more than cover the exchange fees and leaves a bit for the hassle dealing in foreign currency causes you."

Anya put her hand out.

"You get paid after you prepare the brief. Otherwise I know you will spend all your time trying to figure out how to get the best exchange rate."

"Fine eight hundred Euros tomorrow night and I'll tell everyone all about the first."

Alex shook Anya's outstretched hand "Agreed"

"As he was leaving the shop Anya called out one more piece of advice. "If you drop anyone else through a dimensional portal let me know. I can pop in and retrieve them without wasting all that time researching spells that may or may not work. D'Hoffryn lets me teleport where ever I want now."

Alex paused, "I thought he was disappointed in how you were performing, what changed?"

"Oh he could see that I wasn't going to work out in the scorned women arena, my heart wasn't in it anymore. So we talked and you are looking at the new patron saint of murder victims. I have to do a bit of planar traveling to visit the souls of the victims, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, it's all open to me now. Although I don't do much business in heaven, they're all about forgiveness up there."

Alex looked at her and blinked for a second. "Well good for you seems everything is working out for you. Wait when you threatened me earlier you were bluffing weren't you?"

"Well maybe a little, I couldn't have done it myself. I'd have had to ask Hallie for help." With that she dismissed Alex and went back to setting up a display of fertility symbols.

Alex stepped out of the magic shop visibly stunned by his conversation. The knowledge and talents that Anya could supply to the group were going to waste because no one had bothered to talk to her. Buffy and Wills had essentially tuned her out because of the sex talk, and he had been uncomfortable around her after the whole wedding fiasco. Not that that was an excuse. They had been ignoring a valuable asset because of personality conflicts. If you did that in Section it wouldn't be long before you got yourself or someone else killed.

After shaking his head clear he spotted his next stop. Walking into the Sony store he picked out the manager and recognized the junior clerk. 'Looks like Larry's sports career didn't work out. Must be pretty new as well, doesn't even have his name on his badge. As Alex approached the counter he could see Larry shooting nervous glances towards his boss. She in turn gave him an encouraging smile before retreating to her office, leaving him to handle the customer.

Alex pasted a friendly look on his face, "Larry I was hoping you could help me out. I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to a Sony Vaio with wireless Ethernet. Thing is I need it now so I'm limited by what you have available."

Larry blinked at him for a moment, but recovered quickly. "A Vaio laptop with wireless Ethernet. There are several available models, but at the moment we only have two in stock. Now normally I'm supposed to hand you a fist full of brochures, but as you know what you want why don't we take a look at the actual machines."

Half an hour later Alex was the proud owner of a new top of the line laptop and Larry had made his first sale. Popping the laptop open he set it up to start trolling for open LAN connections before heading off.

Next stop was the construction office. For the life of him he couldn't remember what project he was supposed to be supervising, and it wouldn't work to show up Monday and tell his foreman to 'Carry on as you were'. Nothing would get done and his credibility would be shot. Checking his watch he figured two hours to review the prints, an hour to walk the site, then grab some groceries and head back to pick up Dawn for lunch.

As he passed the INITECH building the laptop caught his attention. 'Cool an open LAN connection, and fast to'. Looking around he spotted a couple of restaurants in close proximity to the INITECH building. The signal range was extremely good and he suspected that one of the employees had set it up so he could do some web surfing from the restaurant over his lunch break.

The rest of the morning went well. The construction job was pretty straightforward and he had kept a detailed logbook. It wouldn't be any problem to keep the project on time and under budget. He had even noted a few suggestions for increasing the quality of material while staying within budget. He hadn't presented any of the suggestions to the client, lacking the nerve back then, but he made a note to discuss the changes in the meeting tomorrow.

Grocery shopping was another highlight of his day. Working in Section there was very little point in buying food in quantity. Most of the time what you did purchase went bad when you were called in for a mission. Approaching the checkout lane with a very full cart he felt for his wallet in his back pocket. Reassuring himself that it was there he began unloading the cart. If it hadn't been for that T'Nrith Demon whose blood melted plastic he would never of made a backup wallet and he would be unable to access his money till Monday. Smiling he handed the clerk his debit card while the bagboy loaded his cart.

~~~~**~~~~

Returning to his apartment Alex was carrying in the first load of groceries when he noticed that his door was ajar, the frame splintered around the lock. While he was debating how to enter the room he recognized two distinct laughs. 'If Buffy's laughing maybe she won't kill me when I get in. But she did kick the door open, so play it cool Alex.' Relaxing slightly he shouldered the door open.

"Honey I'm home, and I've brought food. Now get your cute butt out here and help me carry it in."

Stepping out of the kitchen, Buffy by her side, Dawn asked "And why Alexander Harris, would I be interested in such a menial task as hauling in groceries?"

"Because the sooner the groceries are put away the sooner you get your present and the sooner we," he made a broad sweeping gesture to include Buffy, "can go for lunch. I found the perfect place while I was out shopping."

Buffy chimed in, "Perfect place, Xander the double meat palace is not the perfect place."

Alex never lost his smile, but Dawn saw the amusement fade from his eyes. In the old days one or both of them would have made some comment to relieve the insult. Now they just shrugged it off. Buffy still had no idea how different Alex was from Xander and despite their talk still expected the old Xander. After hauling in and putting away the mountain of food he had purchased Dawn turned to him. "Alright, someone promised me a present where is it?"

Alex reached and grabbed Dawn pulling her in for a kiss. "Demanding little thing aren't you."

"Damn Straight." Dawn reached up and grabbed the back of his neck pulling him down for a longer more passionate kiss. Hands were just beginning to wander when Buffy cleared her throat.

"Ahem. Sister in the room. Don't need to be seeing this."

Dawn turned her head to look at Buffy. "Well would you mind turning around until we're finished then?"

Buffy blushed but rallied back. "Well I could do that, but you haven't gotten your present yet, and someone promised lunch."

"Hey that's right, no fair Alex distracting me from my present."

"It was a perfectly fair distraction, and quite a good one to. But if you want your present you'll have to go out to lunch with me."

"You mean like a date?" Dawn replied with feigned innocence

"I think that's what it's called. We can bring your overprotective and prudish sister along to make sure I don't get out of hand."

"Well if we have a chaperon I guess it's OK."

Buffy watched the interplay between the two. There was so much of the old Xander and Dawn there she had to admit that it really was them just more grown up. They joked as much as they ever did, only now she felt like an intruder when she tried to join in. Slowly she followed them out, trying in vain to close the door behind her. Feeling a little guilty she looked about for some way of securing the door closed.

Upon reaching the SUV Alex looked questioningly at Dawn, "What's up with Buffy? She kicks in the door, but when I show up she's laughing and smiling. What did you do drug her?"

"No didn't need to. I just explained a few things to her. Your right though her switch was way to quick, I hardly had to say anything to get her to change her mind about Spike. It's almost like she's been conditioned to believe whatever someone tells her."

"Now that doesn't sound good, you think it was something Spike did?"

"Who else would?"

"Could be a remnant from the dark Willow days." Alex replied

"Either way this can't be good."

With a shrug Alex opened the car door and pulled a laptop out from under the seat and handed it to Dawn. "Your present Milady. I know it's not up to your usual standards, but it's the best I could find on the domestic market"

Opening up the Laptop and dropping into the CMOS she quickly checked out the stats. "It's a great present Alex, it has everything a girl could need. A little sparse on the wrapping paper though."

"You're stuck with Windows XP until we can grab a new OS. Shame we can't get a hold of one of Birkoff's custom jobs…" Alex broke off as he watched Dawn pull out a USB Drive and plugged it into the computer.

Dawn looked over, "Just a few toys I couldn't leave home without." Whispering in Alex's ear she continued "Mission spec's were sketchy so in case we ended up bailing I did a backup of our laptop, including OS. Kept it shielded so the light show shouldn't have affected it."

Spotting Buffy finally approaching Alex motioned for both girls to get into the vehicle. Dawn climbed into the passenger seat already working on her custom restore, while Buffy hopped in the back. Alex climbed into the driver's seat and turned to Dawn. "Finally I get to drive. I'll have to buy you presents more often."

Dawn nodded absently, all her concentration on the laptop.

Buffy piped up from the backseat, "So where are we going Xan?"

"It's a surprise, but I think you'll like it."

"You know I don't like surprises Xander, just tell me. Dawn did you get your present? What did he get you?" Buffy fired off the questions.

Alex shrugged and looked over at Dawn who was deeply involved in the laptop. "She seems to be enjoying her new toy."

Buffy poked her head over the seat. "Oh my god you got her a computer. What kind of present is that, and why is she like glued to it? She hasn't said a word since I got in the car."

"Buffy, this is a great present." Dawn replied without looking up, "I love it, and it's the best thing he could have picked out for me right now. Much better than that fruity computer Willow insists on using. Nothing against Willows skills, but I can do more faster and easier with this laptop than she can with hers."

"I just meant that a computer is a strange and expensive present. I was expecting… I don't know some trinket or something. It just surprised me."

As they pulled into the restaurant parking lot Buffy again spoke up, "Chotchkies isn't much better than the double meat palace Xander. I mean the waiters are covered in crappy pins and buttons and that Brian guy, I really think he's a demon or something. No normal person would willingly wear that much Flare." She latterly spat that last word.

Listening absently to Buffy's rant about a previous employer Dawn smiled to herself as the laptop found the wireless Ethernet connection. With a few keystrokes she began acquiring packets for analysis and closed the screen.

Looking around she spotted the three restaurants and tried to decide which one they were going to. Chotchkies was pretty much out from the way Buffy talked about it. Chillis had a drive through window. So that left only Flingers. Once the SUV stopped she got out and headed towards Flingers noting that Alex joined her while Buffy in her rush to be first had headed off to Chotchkies. With an elbow and a snigger she pointed out Buffy's mistake before calling her back.

"Buffy we're eating at Flingers, we know how much you hate that Brian guy and we wouldn't want to inflict that trauma on you."

~~~~**~~~~

Dawn climbed into the SUV and opened the laptop to check on the program she had cracking the Wireless network. "Excellent. You're right Alex this was a great place for lunch. An hour and I've grabbed enough interesting packets to crack their Ethernet. You know if we were limited to using public domain software like Airsnort it could have taken a week to gather enough interesting packets. Shame we can't try it out now, but the battery is running low so we'll have to recharge and come back later."

Alex looked over "That's OK. We have the meeting with the rest of the gang in 20 minutes. We can come back after and fix everything."

"What are you going to fix?" Questioned a confused Buffy

Dawn turned to Buffy, "To start with we are going to fix a few records, Birth certificates, Passports, Medical files, Drivers Licenses. You know update everything so that the records match our physical age. Plus I don't think I'd fit in at High School anymore so I'll fix that as well."

"How are you going to fix that?"

"Well when you blew up the school it took all the paper records for your graduating class with it. So a few pokes and prods at the computer records and viola Dawn Summers graduated alongside her sister. Fixing Alex's records will be a bit more difficult. May involve some extra curricular activities at the school board. It will be interesting to see how thorough the monks were in creating my identity the first time."

Buffy tried for a stern disapproving mother look, "Extracurricular, what exactly are you planning to do?"

"The School board will have paper records for the years that we have to put you in Alex. So we'll have to get in and add those. People are unlikely to check, but I insist on being thorough. This is a real identity that we'll have to live for years, so I don't want any mistakes. Personal memories we can't fix, but it's unlikely anyone will do personal interview."

Frowning slightly Buffy looked out the window. It sounded like her sister was "Seems like a lot of work just to change your ages on your records. Is it really necessary?"

"Alex you could probably get by without it, but I don't look or act seventeen anymore. I just don't fit in and I won't go back to that unless I absolutely have to. Besides this way we can get rid of that whole child welfare thing. Speaking of which we'll have to add that to the activities list. That record has to disappear completely."

Buffy's mood lightened a little, "Oh come now I can just see them coming to take you away. Especially when you stop showing up to school."

Dawn grinned evilly, "Lets see, maybe we could just make a few changes to that file. Hmmm Dawn Summers Blonde 5' 3", you are the younger sister now after all."

Buffy smirked back at her, "Bitch, you would send your only sister off with child welfare wouldn't you."

Dawn grinned back "Well she is quite a handful. Out at all hours, always getting into fights and is big into the occult and demons. But I love her and no one is going to take her away from me."

"You really mean that?"

"Of course I mean it. You're my sister. The person I missed most over the five years I was away."

"So why did you point a gun at my head? Were you planning on shooting me like you shot Spike?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but I couldn't let you stop Alex from taking care of Spike. I love you Buffy, but I love Alex and hated Spike more. Please don't ever ask me to decide between you and Alex."

"So you love Xander more than me?" Buffy's expression couldn't decide on whether to settle on astonishment or a pout. 'How can she love anyone more than me? I'm her sister. She has to love me more.'

"I love you both equally. You're my sister and have always been there for me, I love you for that and I always will. But if you attack Alex I will stop you. Please don't make me choose Buffy."

"So you would actually shoot me if I attacked Alex? I bet you never put a gun to his head." Buffy had finally settled on a sulk.

Dawn was struggling to contain the urge to slap her sister and tell her to grow up. "If you were intent on maiming or killing him. Then yes Buffy I likely would shoot you. You heal faster than he does and we know a bullet won't keep you down for long.

"And if you think I wouldn't do the same to Alex if he went after you, well you would be wrong there to. Alex has stared down the barrel of my gun and he learned how willing I am to pull the trigger to protect the people I care about."

Alex reached over from the drivers seat and grasped Dawn's hand. "And I promised you that you would never have to do that ever again. I'm sorry about the way I handled things last night. I shouldn't have put you in a position where you had pick between me and your sister." Looking at Buffy in the rear-view mirror he continued, "This time I can't promise it won't happen again, but I'll do my best to see that it doesn't"

Dawn squeezed his hand accepting his promise for what it was.

Buffy watched the two of them and tried to pick out what exactly Xander was sorry about and what his promise implied.

The rest of the trip to Chez Summers was made in silence.

~~~~**~~~~

Interlude 1

By some twist of congressional backroom politics Sunnydale had received a signals intelligence training facility. Unlike many such training facilities they did not bother simulating signals for the trainees to practice on. The nearby community had a wealth of signals for them to practice with. From eavesdropping on low strength signals of baby monitors through cell phone traffic right up to the secured transmissions of emergency service vehicles the trainees sifted through it all.

Lieutenant Tim Baker was on his second cup of coffee and it wasn't even eight yet. With a yawn he logged into his station and fired up the monitoring software. His class had completed low intensity broadband signals last week and were working through the slightly more secure cellular networks. He was hoping they would get to encrypted signals soon. This stuff was just to dull. Paging through his list of intercepted signals he spotted something interesting.

"Sarah, look at this." Lt. Baker pointed at the data coming up on his screen.

"What ya got?" questioned Lt. Richer

"Some geek managed to configure his cell to work with a 555 prefix."

"That's kinda cool." Lt. Richer took a closer look at the monitor. "Your signal looks a little weird. Sort of like those Thurya satellite phones but not quite. Can you hear what your geek is saying?"

"Sure let me pipe it through audio."

…risk robbing the armory again."

There was a pause.

"Look I'll see what I can do. No promises."

"Thanks I appreciate it. First off I need an AWP 308 with silencer, night vision scope, and a thousand rounds of ammo. Make half high explosive. Secondly I need 20 flash bangs. Third I need 5000 rounds standard 9mm rounds and a thousand 9mm tracer rounds. How soon can you get this to me?"

"The ammunition is no problem, but we don't use that particular sniper rifle. It'll take two days to gather that up and get it out to you."

"Two Days. Great that will be fine, same time same place."

"Look X, this stuff isn't cheap. I may have some out of pocket expenses getting this for you"

"Yes I know they will be expensive, but I recently had a windfall of cash, you don't have a problem with Euros do you?"

The two Lieutenants looked at each other in shock.

"Did you record that? Tell me you recorded that."

Lt. Baker quickly checked his computer, "Yep got the whole thing. I'm dumping it to a CD now."

"Did you get a position on the signal?" Lt. Richer asked, "If it was from a personal residence we could figure out who it was."

Punching up another window Lt. Baker swore under his breath. "No damnit. The signal bounces all over the place."

Bringing up a couple decryption algorithms he ran the signal through them. "Whoever built the phone knew what they were doing. They bounced the signal off every available tower in the area and set up dozens of nodes. It's impossible to tell which one is the real signal."

Stabbing his finger at the screen he spat. "See these. There are even three nodes on the base itself, and another four at the National guard depot."

"OK so we can't find out who he is, but we know who he called, just bring up the number and we'll track it that way."

"No can do, it's blocked."

"Unlisted? Just run it through the database." Lt. Richer reached for the keyboard.

Slapping her fingers away Lt. Baker frowned, "I said blocked. There is no number or signal to decrypt. The initial dialup was non-standard with some sort of encryption and the carrier containing the number disappears almost immediately. I can't even tell you if the person is in this country."

Lt. Richer thought for a moment. "So basically we've done everything we can here. We have to report it to the instructor. If it turns out to be important someone else will follow it up. If not it will likely be given to the advanced classes to crack."

Lt. Baker sighed. "Your right. There is nothing else we can do."

Calling over the instructor he removed the CD and prepared to inform the instructor on the signal.

~~~~**~~~~

General Oates had been with signals intelligence for his entire military career. He had spent time in Alert monitoring Russian com traffic. He'd worked in West Germany decrypting Stasi communiqué. Normally an officer of his caliber would be sitting in the Pentagon reviewing actual intelligence reports not manning a training facility. But with the failure of intelligence during the September 11th attacks and the new war on terror the Joint Chiefs had decided that their current training program was insufficient. So with only one star he had been transferred to Sunnydale to manage an underfunded apathetic training facility.

Right now however he was looking at a very interesting report. He had listened to the entire cell call before opening the folder that accompanied it. The actual conversation didn't interest him, he'd heard the same thing hundreds of times. It was the cell number that made the entire thing worth his while.

A 555 prefix. He'd run across that a total of six times in the past ten years. Each and every time the data disappeared before he could do anything with it. With his first star and higher clearance he'd researched a little. He'd gotten far enough to find out it was intelligence before he was stonewalled. He hadn't even been able to find out whose intelligence.

Reading the transcript again he cursed. "Fucking bastards are running an op in my town."

Leafing through the folder he noted that the trainees had been relatively thorough in their investigation. The subsequent analysis hadn't found out who or where 'X' was but had managed to track down 'Huckleberry'. The dialing encryption had been top notch, but had fallen to brute force methods.

He'd inform Huckleberry's commander and let him deal with that end. He already had a system monitoring for further traffic.

The General growled under his breath. "You're not pulling something in my town without me knowing about it you bastards."

~~~~**~~~~

Birkoff nervously walked up the stairs to the perch. He always hated coming up here. In part because he never had good news and partly because Operations intimidated the hell out of him.

Passing through the security and entering the perch he approached Operations desk. "Sir you should take a look at this." Handing over a PAD he continued. "A sig int trainee recorded a conversation off one of our cells. The individual called an unsecured number so the full encryption didn't kick in."

Operations glanced at the PAD before sitting back and motioning Birkoff to continue.

"We've tracked both ends. The call originated from the apartment of AleXander Harris. The individual on the other end was Riley Finn. Both individuals have military files and are linked through project Initiative. Major Finn is your classic US black ops with minor biotech enhancements from project initiative. Almost everything he's done has been classified." Birkoff stopped his brief and was noticeably looking everywhere but at the man behind the desk.

After a few seconds Operations tossed the PAD on his desk, "And Mr. Harris? What were you able to find out about him?"

"That's where it gets weird sir, I found evidence that he stole a AT-4 from the Sunnydale armory yet no charges were filed. He blew up his school during the graduation ceremony and again no charges. His police and hospital files would fill that PAD. The military has a file on him linking him with four other individuals who have similar stats.

"I dug a little deeper and Harris has a black bag account attached to his name. I followed that up and ended up at Oversight. Harris appears to be protected and funded by Oversight. Other than his history the military file is blank as are those of his associates.

"Sunnydale appears perfectly normal with the exception of the missing person list and a death rate higher than the Balkans."

"The trace to Oversight is positive"

"As positive as you can get. It *is* Oversight or someone who authorizes Oversight's budgets."

Operations sat back a grin forming. "You either stumbled on Oversight itself or one of its recruiting and training centers." He pause steepling his fingers, "I want you to lose the data. No need to have anything for Oversight to find if they go looking at us."

Birkoff nodded already planning how to wipe out the data and all the backups. "And the signals data?"

"We'll let George clean up his own mess. But keep an eye on Sunnydale I would like to know what exactly they are doing there."