She was there, waiting for him, with a warm smile and happiness in her eyes. Kaider, on the contrary, remained emotionless.

'You weren't supposed to come here.'

'I wanted to see what you were up to. Besides, I was getting lonely,' she added guiltily.

'All right, I missed you too, if it makes you feel better,' he softened. 'I just wanted you to stay there as a messenger. It's hard to establish a connection from a big city like this.'

The entire conversation was made without either of them making a single sound, for both of them found exchanging thoughts more convenient than spoken words.

'Anyway, I thought you might want to see this yourself,' Karina reported, giving him the Flash.

'How did it go?' he asked, unpacking his laptop.

'Much more exciting than I'd like it,' she admitted. 'Next time, you go and play James Bond yourself. These games are for men. For the stupid ones.'

'Well, I can't say I've done anything stupid till now. Things have been boring and uneventful since my arrival.'

'Have they? The lady that drove you here didn't think so.'

'Oh, you mean that little incident. Just did the job and helped a teammate.'

'Not that simple, I can see it in your mind now. The woman was dying... Now she knows you're the one who saved her, doesn't she?'

'She isn't sure, and there's no way she could possibly come near the truth anyway.'

'Still, you shouldn't have intervened.'

'And let her die? Maybe it would've been better,' he shrugged, plugging the Flash into the computer, 'but she had friends there, and, you know, and they cared a lot about her. They would've suffered, and I don't like making people suffer like that.'

'Look, I just don't think you should've come here in the first place,' Karina sighed, watching her companion as he turned on the power. 'You've gone too far with this hunter business.'

'I'll go as far as necessary for our mission.'

'Our mission is to watch, not to intervene - with one exception, of course.'

'Our mission is also to report anything important, and I need to get inside in order to understand what exactly I have to report.'

Kaider launched the program that checked the data for possible snares, like those capable of destroying valuable information as a result of unauthorized access attempt.

'Are you sure it's worth it, Horst?' Karina asked, standing behind him. 'Are you sure this isn't your adventurous nature speaking?'

'We'll see that soon enough. Why are you asking?'

'You might spook them if you keep going like that. If that happens, they will attempt to take you out.'

'Even if they succeed,' he turned to look at her. 'Does that bother you?'

'Of course not.'

'Now, let's see...' Kaider finally started going through the data stolen from Solomon Headquarters. 'Hmm, what's this... Project Robin?'

'One more thing,' she reported as Kaider was reading the information on the screen. 'I've met quite an important person there, Juliano Colegui. His mind was surprisingly calm, but I managed to catch a thought regarding your transfer to STN-J. He's a little suspicious about it...'

STN-G station. Two weeks ago.

Director Siegfried wasn't surprised to find the building uninhabited, as he was already used to the fact that the others called night what he called morning. He looked at his office door and winced, as a thin stripe of light could be seen under it, which probably meant that he had left the lights on last night. Opening the door in irritation, he discovered it was not the case, though. Kaider was sitting behind the director's desk, doing something on a computer he wasn't supposed to have access to and looking something up in the papers at the same time. In fact, he was so busy that he only gave his boss a short nod as a greeting. Which, naturally, was far from satisfying for Siegfried, who was now blinking rapidly, expecting to wake up from this crazy dream any moment.

"Mr. Kaider," he finally managed to say, only to be interrupted by Kaider, who was now acting like he was the one in charge here.

"Shush. You've got some really interesting data here, you know," he said, looking through the papers thoughtfully. "Some of it couldn't even be found in your own mind."

That remark made Siegfried flinch somewhat. Kaider had been introduced to the STN-G team as a powerful telepath, who didn't even bother to restrain his mind-reading ability when among the teammates. There was no official way to forbid him reading others minds, and, as a result, the entire personnel simply started avoiding the man, which didn't seem to bother him at all.

"You're correct here," Kaider nodded approvingly. "I've been just fine here with no one to get in the way. But it probably won't work so well when I need to get some information from the people, so I'll probably conceal this little talent of mine on the new place."

"New place? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I haven't told you... You've got some info here regarding every other Solomon division in the world. The Japanese one turned out to be especially interesting. The events that took place there less than a month ago seem significant enough to require my presence."

"What does that all mean?" Siegfried almost yelled, the face of this usually calm man now red with anger.

"It means that I need you to recommend me for a permanent transfer to STN-J as soon as possible. Don't worry, I've already learned the language."

"I... I... n-n-never... Get out!" Siegfried shouted with the bloodshot eyes, walking slowly to the impudent fellow.

"You don't like the idea?" Kaider asked innocently. "I'm afraid I've already sent the e-mail from your computer to inform the Headquarters of your far-sighted decision."

"That's it," Siegfried reached Kaider's collar with his hands, but recoiled at once, as if stopped by some invisible force. The only thing he could see were his subordinate's glowing eyes, which now became larger than the universe itself.

"And now, you will call them to confirm your request, and then, you'll forget everything that happened until this moment," Kaider ordered, and his boss started dialing the number on the phone. Siegfried didn't hear Kaider's retreating footsteps or the sound of the office door closing.

Present time.

The park was a very lonely place at four in the morning, which was exactly what Kaider needed. He could still hear the thoughts of people in the buildings surrounding the park, most of them dreams, but it was easier to shut them out here. He sat down on the bench, relaxed his body and closed his eyes, allowing himself to hear numerous reports coming from beings similar to himself, capable of using their minds as a transceiver with a truly unlimited range. Then, he concentrated to transmit a message of his own. Powered by his mind, it was directed to those who were responsible for making decisions based on the information gathered by watchers.

'...special abilities caused by natural genetic anomalies. Although the existence of such anomalies has been reported for several centuries, their magnitude is increasing rapidly, and at least one experiment of artifically engineering special powers has proved successful. Further investigation required in order to estimate the scale and possible consequences of the phenomenon.'

He then kept sitting there, watching the sunrise and listening to the transmissions, until the answer finally came.

'Approved. Proceed with caution.'