"We were just taking the Goodman's up to their quarters," Lester said after clearing his throat.

"Of course," I nodded. "You must be exhausted. How long were you flying?"

"Nineteen hours," Brian said quietly.

"Good heavens," I groaned and glanced at my watch. "You must have taken the first plane out of New Zealand. Oh my God, is it really one AM?"

"It is," Ranger nodded.

"We'll let you get settled in and we'll see you in the morning," I suggested. "Mitch is going to have his brain poked at by Dr. Addison tomorrow morning. I'm sure you'll want to get up to speed too."

"I'd like to get up to speed before that," Brian said seriously. "What time can I be…can we be briefed," he smiled at his father.

"How about over breakfast at 0830," Ranger suggested, "in the executive dining room in the main building. It's on the third floor of the other building."

"They haven't been bio'd in," Lester said. "They won't be able to get in."

"I'll come and get you," I said cheerfully. "So…I'll see you tomorrow morning at about 8:25? Is that good?"

"That's great," Brian nodded. "See you then."

"Sleep well," I waved and stepped toward Ranger.

"I'll go up with them," Mitch waved.

"Good night," the Judge grinned and stepped on the elevator.

"Hussy," Ranger muttered to me.

I reached around and smacked him lightly on the ass.

"Let's go home," he shook his head.

"Shall we walk," I suggested.

"Good idea," he agreed. "Let's take the stairs down?"

"Sure," I nodded.

"I called Manuel and offered him the job as you suggested."

"And," I raised a brow.

"He'll be here in a couple of days," he nodded.

"That's great," I sighed.

"And I talked to Mooner," he shook his head.

"What did he say?"

"Rangeman Dude," he grinned as he drew out the words.

I laughed, "What else did he say?"

"He said he thought it was time he got his shit together. He's moving onsite and doing some online refreshing. He said he's kept up with the technology growth, but he hasn't actually worked with a lot of the new stuff. His assistant will get him up to speed."

"That's too cool," I said as we paused in front of the panel.

We stepped into the tunnel and I blinked. It was pink. The walls were pink.

"Anyway, they'll both be here soon," he said taking my hand in his.

"Is this Freudian?"

"What," he frowned.

"Our tunnel is pink. Is it Freudian?"

"How is it Freudian?"

"It's pink. You know like the pink walls of my vagina?"

He blinked at me.

"Is it?"

"I don't think so. I'll ask Dr. Addison day after tomorrow when I go back for my appointment."

"Okay…my golf cart is pink too, right?"

He groaned, "Maybe it's Freudian. Maybe we've had a lot of sex lately."

"Maybe," I grinned.

He blinked, "You're planning for us to have sex tonight, aren't you?"

"Is it too much of a good thing," I raised a brow.

"No," he picked me up and put me over his shoulder and picked up his pace in the tunnel.

"Ranger," I laughed as he all but ran.

"I don't want you to be too tired to play when we get home," he said.

I wasn't.

At 8:20 precisely I knocked on Brian's door.

He swung the door open, "hi,"

"Hi," I smiled.

"These are posh accommodations," he said seriously letting me into the apartment. "Do all the apartments have such amenities?"

"Oh yea," I nodded.

"Who's your decorator?"

"Me," I beamed. "So you think I did okay?"

"You did great," he blinked. "This place is great."

"I'm glad you're comfortable. We really appreciate you coming in to help us out here Brian."

"It's my pleasure. Dad jumped on the chance. The computer's very cool. I suspect I'll get more information including passwords after the breakfast briefing?"

"Yea," I nodded.

"Then we better get Dad and go," he said.

"Let's do that."

I took the men to the lowest level and opened the tunnel.

"This is more state of the art than the FBI," he shook his head.

"Well, we're a little more underground," I grinned.

"Ranger's done well for himself," the Judge nodded in satisfaction.

"Yes he has," I smiled.

"How are Cal, Tank and Woody," Brian asked softly.

"Woody is home. Tank's probably out before we finish breakfast. Cal is out of CCU. I'll tell you, we were scared about Cal."

"He's strong as an ox," he smiled.

"Yea," I nodded.

"How is Natalie?"

"Deliriously happy," I beamed. "They bought a house and are getting ready to remodel. The wedding was beautiful."

"I bet," he smiled.

"Do you know that this guy is guilty because of your tingles," the Judge asked out of the blue.

I blushed, "that's part of the reason."

He nodded. "I wouldn't take that lightly."

"We don't sir," I said softly.

"Is the evidence stacking up that way?"

"On the surface," I agreed. "We're still working on connecting the dots. We want a paper trail, but when someone's been in black ops for five years, they get pretty good at hiding things."

He nodded grimly.

"This George was in Afghanistan with Ranger and the guys?"

"Not strictly with," I shook my head and punched the elevator button to go up. "They were there at the same time. They weren't in the same unit, but they were in the same region. Our Intel suggests they were offline at the same time and at the same place. We suspect at this time that the incident probably took place during the second week of July in 1995."

The Judge nodded, "if I'd seen you people working behind the scenes when you were on my case, I'd have rolled over and just waited to be cleared."

I laughed, "thank you sir. Ranger and the men are really good at what they do."

"Don't discount your contribution," Brian said as we stepped off the elevator onto the third floor.

"Oh I won't," I said with a smile. "But like most things in life, this is a team effort."

He nodded. "It looks like a good team to be on."

"I'm glad to hear you say that," Ranger said offering Brian his hand at the door to the dining room. "Did you gentlemen sleep okay?"

"Oh hell yea," the Judge grinned shaking Ranger's hand. "This place is a palace. I could get used to it."

Ranger grinned. "Come have breakfast and we'll get you up to speed."

Forty minutes later the Judge and Brian both had grim expressions and full bellies.

The Judge tilted his chair back and studied the file in his hands. "This guy is dirty. I can feel it."

"That's what Stephanie thinks," Ranger smiled over at me. "She's pretty sure that Mitch saw him do something with or for someone that is illegal if not treasonous."

"That's pretty serious," Brian frowned. "We need something good if he's committed treason."

"Like solid evidence," Ranger nodded.

"Or a confession," the Judge shrugged.

"Would it stand up in court," I frowned.

"Probably," Brian said thoughtfully. "An admission of guilt for a treasonous offense is actually easier to prove guilt with than an admission of guilt for murder. The court system seems to feel that treasonous guilt is more heinous."

"In a lot of cases it is," Ranger nodded, "a murderer usually only kills a single person. A single act of treason could kill hundreds if not thousands or more."

I sighed, "I don't want him to get away with this abuse of power. He's a bad man. I know it. If he'd do this, what else has he done and gotten away with?"

"There's no telling," Brian sighed.

Ranger glanced at his watch. "It's almost 0930 hours. Dr. Addison will be here in half an hour. I'd like to give you a tour of the facility but first we need to get you to the bio center and get you scanned in."

"Really," Brian blinked. "You're going to give us access to the facility."

"I trust you or you wouldn't be here."

"Thank you," Brian said quietly.

"Where are you headed Babe," Ranger glanced over at me.

"I'm going to my office. I'm going to make a few phone calls. Mitch is meeting me over here at five till. We're going to do it in the conference room. I've informed the Com that they're to record."

"Thank you," he nodded. "I'll take Brian and the Judge down to Bio. We'll be back before the hour."

"See you there," I nodded and headed for the stairs.

Mitch and I met Dr. Addison in the lobby and walked him up to the second floor conference room. We briefly discussed the time and Mitch's basic memory of the event before Ranger and the Goodman's returned from Bio.

"Are you going to be comfortable doing this with so many people here," Dr. Addison asked Mitch.

"Yes sir," he nodded. "Just don't let Ranger put any subliminal suggestions in."

Dr. Addison grinned, "I'll take care of it."

Ten minutes later Dr. Addison was surfing through Mitch's subconscious memories. He would stop and pause for a few seconds to make sure that he was in the real memories. He'd glance at Ranger and me for confirmation. Then he took him further down and back into the deeper recesses of Mitch's mind.

"It's the guy in the file," Mitch said and his brow went up.

"Where are you?"

"In the alley," he said with a sigh. "We're in Kabul on leave…I mean as much as you can be on leave while you're in Afghanistan."

"What is he doing?

"He's talking to a man in the doorway."

"What man?"

"I don't know. The man is familiar. I know his face."

"Can you hear what they're saying?"

"They're talking about troop movements," he frowned.

"Troop movements," Dr. Addison frowned over Mitch's head at Ranger.

"The man is handing him a piece of paper. I know the man…its Ali Kahlil Oman," he said softly. "He's a known terrorist."

Ranger's face became very grim.

"What troop movements did they talk about?"

"US troop movements for the first week of August near the borders."

"Which borders," he asked.

"Jalalbad near the Pakistan border, Shir Khan on the Tajikistan border, and Mazar-e Sharif on the Uzbekistan border," he said.

"Why does he want to know?"

"They plan to launch attacks on US Troops. He paid him five million dollars in an account in the Grand Caymans."

Dr. Addison looked up at Ranger and Ranger nodded.

"You will awaken when I count to the number five. You will feel refreshed. You will remember everything. One…two…three…four…five," he said.

Mitch blinked and sat up with a sigh. Then he groaned. "Holy shit…no wonder he wants me dead."

Dr Addison sighed. "May I assume that you got what you wanted?"

"Yes, thank you," I smiled. "I'll walk you out."

"Thank you Stephanie. I assume this is utmost secrecy?"

"Absolutely," I nodded.

"We'll send you a check," Ranger nodded.

"Thank you," he said and we left them alone.

When I returned, the men had a map of Afghanistan on the wall and were plotting the movements and the attacks from Intel sent from the Army. What George got paid to do resulted in the deaths of 7200 men women and children including 800 US soldiers. Fortunately for Ranger and his team, they were in transit when the attacks occurred or they could be part of that statistic.

I just sat back in my chair and listened to the men talk. We'd been joined at some point by Lester, Bobby and Tank. Tank looked a little worse for the wear, but he said he needed to be onsite. Lula was with Ella fixing an apartment for them to stay in until the heat was off.

"I just don't remember that much about that summer," Ranger sighed. "I wish I could."

"We should call Mike," Lester suggested. "He may remember some stuff. And you can call Steve in Seattle too. He could remember some stuff. They were both pretty sane that summer."

Ranger nodded. "I'll do that." He sighed, "Let's take a break. I want to give Brian and Fenton a tour of the facility. They're bio'd in and they've got their passes and IDs. I'd also like to talk to each of you separately. Tank, are you sure you want to be here today?"

"I need to be here today," he said seriously.

"Will you make the calls to Steve and Mike?"

"Done," he nodded.

"Lester, Mooner is coming by at about one, can you show him the lab and introduce him to Tracy?"

"Sure," he nodded and looked over at me in surprise.

"Steph, Manuel hasn't left Cayman yet. Would you call him and see if he can get anything on that wire transfer in July of 1995?"

"I'm on it," I agreed.

He walked over and ran a hand over my cheek, "and maybe you could take a nap? We have an apartment on the seventh floor of this building."

"Always the seventh floor," I smiled up at him.

"Always…seventh heaven has a whole new meaning."

I smiled, "I'll see."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I love you."

"Ditto," he whispered gruffly and brushed my mouth lightly with his before leading the men from the room.

I went to my office and dialed Manuel's number and waited as it rang. I got his voice mail. "Hey Manuel," I sighed. "It's Stephanie. Ranger asked me to call you about checking on a lead. Call me back. I need to talk to you anyway. Okay?" I hung up and sighed and went to the elevator and flashed my fob and headed for the seventh floor.

There I had to flash the fob again and press my palm to the panel to open the door to the apartment with Manoso engraved on the pewter plate by the bell. I guess Ranger didn't want anyone barging in on us there. I didn't blame him. There was another door on the other side of the hall and the pewter panel there said Thibodeaux. I knew that Lula was in that apartment making it cozy for her and her Tankie. It made me smile just to think about it.

The apartment was decorated the way our house was decorated. The furniture had to come from Gaby's warehouse. The linens were reminiscent of the one's on our bed at home. The kitchen was better than the old apartment. It was more like our house and was fully outfitted. This apartment also had three bedrooms. I suppose when he built it, he knew we would eventually have the bean. I wondered if Tank and Lula's had three bedrooms as well.

I went into the bedroom and stretched out on the bed. He was right, I was tired. The last couple of days had been traumatic. As much as I loved my husband, I also felt a twinge when I saw Brian. It wasn't a sharp twinge of regret or anything, just a vague sad memory. He looked at me the same way. If Ranger hadn't come around, we may have just ended up together. But it was better this way. Ranger was the love of my life. I couldn't lie to anyone about that, much less myself.

My eyes were just about to drift closed when my phone rang, "hello Manuel."

"Chica…you're speaking to me again?"

"I am," I nodded. "None of this was your fault. You were just stirring up the pot and doing what was necessary to get Ranger's head out of his ass. Don't do it again or I'll kill you though."

"Chica…if I have to do it again, my foot will be up his ass."

I laughed, "You won't. He's in therapy."

"Yea, he told me," he said and I could hear the smile in his voice. "I'll be honest with you Chica…everyone in Trenton needs to be in therapy. You should talk him into hiring a staff psychologist."

"Good idea," I nodded.

"So what's this about checking out something here?"

"It's bad Manuel…we're talking treason."

"Oh shit," he groaned. "What's the name?"

"His real name is George Melendez."

"Great, he's Hispanic," he sighed.

I laughed, "We don't hold it against you. Remember Ranger is Spanish, Lester is Spanish, Hector is…"

"You've made your point," he interrupted me.

"The transfer would have occurred in the third week of July in 1995. The amount is for five million dollars."

"That's a lot of treason."

"It was 7200 lives, 800 were US soldiers," I said softly.

"Fuck," he hissed.

"We need to take this guy down. He's put Ranger in the hospital once and I almost lost him. We almost lost Cal two days ago. We lost two good men who were new to our team. This scumbag needs to go down."

"What do I do if I find it?"

"If you find it and there's money still there. We're going to transfer it out. Let's see how that sits with old Georgie."

"Oh shit," he groaned. "Chica…are you sure you know what you're doing here? If he's committed treason he won't hesitate to erase you."

"I know," I nodded. "It will also make him open his mouth."

"You're right about that," he agreed.

"Just see what you can see," I said. "Then get your ass safely here."

"Done," he agreed.

"Okay…see you soon Manuel. Love you."

"Love you too Chica," he said and hung up.

I rolled to my side and cuddled around one of the billion extra pillows on the bed. It didn't smell like Ranger so it wasn't the same, but it was good enough.