This chapter leans on an episode of JQ: TRA called "Ndovu's Last Journey" which is, I think, one of the strongest from the early set. In short, while sightseeing in Tanzania, Jonny Quest is approached by an elephant at the end of its life, and the elephant, according to a Masai elder who appears shortly thereafter, chooses Jonny to be his guardian on his journey to where he intends to die. Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji have to battle some poachers to ensure the elephant's safety, and there's more than a hint of mysticism in the air during the encounter. It's a good one – you should check it out if you get the chance.

Definitely starting to go deeper with other things as well here.

Enjoy!


"Simon, it's Jim."

"Jim! Where the hell have you been? I called you ages ago!" Simon practically roared into the phone. "And do you have any idea what time it is?!"

"It's...complicated," Jim deflected, holding the phone a bit away as he flinched. "Anyway, we're on our way back to Cascade. We'll get there...what time will it be, Chief?"

"It's the middle of the night there, so we'll probably hit Cascade around six in the morning local time," Blair reported. "Which means we have to stay up all day to make sure we readjust to the time change."

"Great. We'll be in this morning," Jim turned back to the phone. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

"Are Doctor Quest and Race with you?" Simon wanted to know.

"Yeah," Jim affirmed. "It didn't make much sense for them to stay behind without us at this point."

"Okay." Simon sighed. "Look, put me on speakerphone. Then I'll only have to say this once."

Jim shrugged but did as asked. He balanced the phone on the arm of his seat, giving it a vaguely central spot in the cockpit of the Dragonfly. Benton turned around from where he sat in front of Jim, and even Race shifted in his chair.

"Doctor Quest?" Simon asked.

"I'm here, captain," Benton answered. "How are things in Cascade?"

"Fantastic," Simon drawled, and even though they could still hear the hoarseness of sleep in his voice, the sarcasm was even sharper. "We've got a full-on arsonist on the loose, my two best detectives wandered off to go traipsing around who-knows-where, and your kids managed to get themselves right in the middle of it."

"Our kids?" Race asked tightly.

"Yeah. They came out to Cascade a while ago to talk about Sentinel stuff," Blair hedged. "Jonny didn't want you to worry and he asked us not to say anything."

"I'm sure he did," Benton scowled. Then he sighed. "I know my son, gentlemen. I assume he impressed upon you a desire to protect me or my work, to ensure I did not pull out of any important business on his behalf? And Hadji acquiesced because he always does when Jonny asks for something and Jessie argued with him but got outvoted?"

"Something like that," Jim nodded.

"I'll say one thing for those kids," Race was torn between rueful laughter and annoyance. "They're loyal."

"Sometimes I wish they were a little less loyal and a little more..." Benton trailed off.

"Obedient?" Jim suggested.

"Predictable?" Blair offered.

"At this point, I'd settle for straight-up boring," Simon groused. "They've got their own Sandburg Zone going out here."

"Are they okay?" Jim asked sharply.

"Yeah, so they say," Simon answered. "Not for lack of trying, though." He sighed again. "Look, the short version is they got themselves on the scene of another fire and Jonny inhaled some kind of poisonous fumes or something."

Before the four men could react, Simon cleared his throat.

"I did call you, Jim. It seemed like a way around not breaking a promise to the kid to tell his dad. Not my fault you don't check your messages."

"But he's okay?" Benton pressed.

"Yeah. They called in a friend of yours? Doctor Zimbati? And he sent over some kind of tree sap or something that did the trick. He's fine."

Jim straightened up in his chair. Without even thinking about it, he blurted, "But something's wrong. I can hear it, Simon. Your heartbeat gives you away."

There was an aggrieved groan that might have been disparaging words if it had been more articulate. "I really hate your senses sometimes, Ellison."

"Just out with it, Simon!" Blair said with an overly bright grin.

"Fine! The kid is fine. They're all fine. Even that dog is fine. But Jonny's been real quiet and he and Hadji aren't saying two words to me. If I had to guess, I'd say it's more stuff with his senses." He paused, then added, "Also, Taggart and Daryl are both asking me a lot of questions, just so you know the trouble you've caused."

"Where are the kids now?" Race asked.

"Up at the lodge with that Ngama kid. Said they'd stay for a while this time."

Benton dropped his face into a hand. "I'm sure they did."

Blair was snickering openly, and Jim threw him a questioning glare. "Why are you so happy about all this?"

"Because it means for once I'm not the one failing to stay behind in the truck!" he cheered.

Jim rolled his eyes and unerringly smacked the back of his partner's head without even looking.

-==OOO==-

The early-morning reunion at the lodge was a little anticlimactic.

There was certainly a fair amount of fatherly concern and disappointment and lecturing that occurred, and it wasn't only the fathers of the group who did the lecturing – Jim got in a few good lines as well. Benton was mainly upset that he hadn't been told that Jonny was having Sentinel trouble, Race was angry that the three had headed to Cascade without letting him know their location in case of emergency, and Jim flashed with an ugly snarl of protectiveness when he learned how close Jonny had been to getting himself killed in that fire.

Unfortunately for all three men, Jessie, Jonny, and Hadji were absolute masters at handling that sort of reaction, having engendered it many, many times over the years. They were sincere and apologetic to Doctor Quest, sufficiently meek to Race, and they allowed Jim to roar at them until he ran out of steam. When all three adults had worn themselves down, only then did Blair speak up.

"So, let's summarize what we've learned here. You," he pointed at the younger trio, as well as Ngama who had stood by them in solidarity, "are not to put Benton's work above telling him if you're in trouble, Race always wants to know where you are, and you shouldn't go into burning buildings again. And you," he pointed to Jim, Race, and Benton, "have to admit, they did everything right."

"Sandburg," Jim growled, but his Guide held up a hand.

"Oh, I agree they should have been more careful or called Benton and Race when they left Maine. But you have to see it. They made a very sensible choice when they were out of their depths with Jonny's senses. They didn't try to keep it a secret from us, and we're the ones they needed. And as for that building," he pinned the three men with a sharp glare, "tell me to my face that every one of you wouldn't have done the exact same thing."

There was an awkward moment.

Blair grinned triumphantly. "That's what I thought. Like it or not, they did good." He winked at Jessie who was nearest him and she winked back.

"So where does that leave us now?" Benton wanted to know, chuckling lightly at Blair's accurate assessment.

"Well, we have a case," Jim said. "That arsonist is going down."

"Mind if I tag along?" Race asked.

"I'm not saying no, but why?" Jim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, first, I don't take it well when somebody tries to set my family on fire," he said lightly, but there was a dark note in his voice. "Secondly, I've got a little experience with explosives myself. I might see something in your crime scene evidence that your people missed."

"Thirdly," Blair put in with an innocent, owl-eyed expression, "he's bored."

Race snorted indignantly, but Benton started to laugh. He laughed until Bandit felt the need to bark along with him and that set off everyone else.

"Wait," Ngama said, confused. "You have just been guarding Doctor Quest abroad in a difficult diplomatic situation regarding military-allied Sentinels and you are bored?"

"Oh yeah," Jonny slung a friendly arm around his shoulders. "Race isn't happy unless there's chaos and mayhem."

"Or at the very least," Hadji put in, "the opportunity to prove his great physical and mental prowess against a worthy adversary."

"He's the only guy I know who goes bull riding when he's been cooped up too long," Blair put in.

"I'm not that bad," Race protested.

"Yes you are," Benton countered, grinning at his oldest friend.

"Sounds like we better take him on," Jim said slyly to his partner. "For his own good. It's clearly unhealthy for him to be so under-stimulated."

"I could provide a doctor's note," Blair offered impishly.

"Fine!" Race shook his head, fighting not to smile. "I could use some action that doesn't involve not picking fights with Russians. So does this mean I'm in?"

"Yeah," Jim nodded. "Simon'll make a fuss, but then Junior over here will pull SELF rank and that'll be that."

"There is still the matter of Jonny's senses," Benton said. "I'm not comfortable with the fact that they've disappeared without any discernible cause."

"I wouldn't say that," Blair suddenly said. He fixed his gaze on Jonny and a change passed over him, as if he were assuming the mantle of something much older and wiser than himself. When Blair looked up his eyes held shadows and secrets well beyond his years. "What Jonny needs he can only find in himself. I may set him on his path, but he will uncover the truth with no other help."

"So what should we do?" Benton asked softly, sensing even if he did not understand the marked change that he was witnessing in his young friend.

"We must clear the property. As few people here as possible, including the government agents. He must be alone, or as near to it as he can be. You," he locked gazes with Hadji, "you will help him if you remain."

"Then I shall," Hadji answered simply.

"May I stay?" Ngama asked. "If you send away all the guards, I will watch the gate myself."

Jim looked at the young man and nodded. "That'd be better than leaving absolutely nobody else on watch. And we won't be too far away if you need us."

"I'll...go spread the word," Race offered. He sent a perplexed look to Benton, but Race had been around Quest mysteries long enough to know when not to ask and just to accept.

"I guess this means I'm coming with you," Jessie said to Jim.

"You and Benton can work on that program to try to find the guy," Jim said. "Benton, you got a psych degree in that folder of diplomas of yours that you could turn into some profiling to help us get this firebug?"

"Why, yes, I do" he answered with a small smile. "After all, the study of human nature is as interesting a phenomenon as any other in the natural or theoretical world."

Jim turned back to Blair. "How long will they need?"

"I will speak with Jonny alone," Blair said, his voice still a little remote, as though it were echoing from a vast distance. "Then we should give them until sunset tomorrow."

"That gives you 36 hours to get your stuff in line," Jessie looked at Jonny sharply. "Think you can handle it?"

Jonny was looking a little bewildered himself, and he swallowed thickly. "I'll try, Jess." Then he forced himself to brighten. "Make sure you get that firebug. You don't want me to come back tomorrow and show you up."

Jessie tossed her head but the hand she put on Jonny's shoulder was gentle. "Deal." Then she turned back towards the stairs to head up to her room. "Seems like I'm always hauling my stuff around," she commented. "Good thing this time I barely unpacked."

"What should I do?" Hadji asked.

Blair turned to him and as the Guides made eye-contact there was a palpable snap of power in the air. "You must wait. Your time will come."

Hadji nodded wordlessly. He bowed his head in a brief farewell to his adopted father before moving out into the greatroom. One corner of the room near a large window was thickly carpeted but otherwise unfurnished, and it was here Hadji seated himself, facing the streaming sunlight to meditate. Bandit looked between the people gathered around before opting to follow, walking three circles around Hadji and then dropping to sleep pressed against his leg.

"What about us?" Jim asked. He took a breath and added, "Guide?"

"Join Race and the agents at the gate. I will be with you shortly." Then he beckoned to Jonny. "Come with me."

Outside, Jonny trotted after Blair in wonder, surprised at the slightly alien character being shown by his friend. But he couldn't deny that he felt something in it. It was something he'd felt in that moment months before when he had beaten Jaga to Hadji to claim him as his Guide. It was something he'd touched in encounters with the impossible and miraculous. Like a touch of eternity. He remembered one of Hadji's favorite quotes, something about things in heaven and earth being stranger than any philosophy. This was definitely one of those times.

Jonny followed Blair away from the central complex and out into the woods. Soon enough he found himself on one of the marked paths through the forest. Before long, they stood at a clearing that had an unobstructed view of the small waterfall on the site. The rushing water was a constant pressure in the air as both sound and mist, and something about its slight chill along with the mild wind that was picking up made Jonny shiver.

"You are afraid."

Jonny looked up in surprise at Blair's stony face. "Of a waterfall?"

"Of your true nature."

"I am not afraid to be a Sentinel!" Jonny protested.

"At home? Where you listen only to your family and the sounds you know? Yes, there you are not afraid. But here? Here you are a Sentinel and you feel the draw to protect a territory and a tribe. Here your senses must be relied upon. Here is where you are afraid."

Jonny wanted to argue but the words stuck in his throat.

"All Sentinels must face this fear. Like the child becoming an adult, it is time to stand in your place." Blair advanced on Jonny, causing him to back up quickly until a log caught him on the back of the knees and he sat hard on it.

"You know how to meditate, correct?"

"I...yes?" Jonny answered, confused.

"Then do so," Blair gestured. "Stay here until your answers come. If by nightfall tomorrow you have not chosen your path and learned to stand in it, I will help you then."

Blair turned without another word to head back down the path; Jonny could only watch him go wordlessly.

By the time he got back to the front of the lodge where Jim was waiting in the truck, Blair was feeling a lot more like himself. Plus very excited.

"Oh, man! That was amazing!" he cheered as he climbed aboard. "It was like...I woke up a part of myself that had been sleeping and I knew all this stuff that I, well, can't remember now but I knew it then and -"

"Easy, Chief," Jim said, putting the truck into gear and heading back down the road. He was aware of Race and Benton in a car ahead of them, and the last of the agents seemed to be clearing out, too. Ngama waved at him from the top of the front checkpoint. Or, as Jim felt like renaming it – and what exactly did this say about what his instincts were telling him about the state of things? – the battlements.

"It was wild, Jim," Blair said. "I don't even have words."

"I think I get it," Jim offered. After all, not long before he'd been driven by instincts of his own, and he couldn't be sorry about that part now, not one bit. "Think he'll be okay?"

"Honestly?" Blair leaned back and ran a hand through his wild curls. "If he gives into what he needs to do, yeah, I think he'll be fine."

-==OOO==-

"Where am I?" Jonny sat up, blinking curiously. "Looks like the savannah, but I think I'd remember one being blue."

The land seemed to go on forever, dotted by low hills and high grasses and scraggly trees. But instead of the golden colors he knew well from many trips to Africa, the world was tinted a dark indigo color. The sky overhead was a strange, pulsing pale blue, almost impossibly luminous against the darkness. How could the sky be so bright when the land was dark? Jonny looked for the sun to see if there was a cloud or something casting the odd bluish-purple shadow. The sky was empty.

Something moved in the brush behind him and Jonny whirled. He saw only the slightest tip of a tail vanishing between the tall stalks of grass and brush. Without knowing why, he felt compelled to follow it. So he did.

After running for what seemed like miles but was probably only a few hundred yards, the creature disappeared into some dense underbrush at the base of a large rocky outcropping. Jonny ducked straight after it, only vaguely cognizant that the area seemed familiar. He felt his foot pass from grass to stone and blinked at the darkness.

"A cave?" he wondered aloud. He turned to go back, but there was no passageway there any longer. "Great," he muttered to himself. "Okay, deep breath. You can do this."

Jonny focused on his sight, striving to extend it in the dense shadows to make out what was before him. But nothing happened. "Oh, come on!" he exclaimed angrily. "What's the point of being a Sentinel if you can't use it when you're in trouble?"

"The path of a Sentinel has nothing to do with you," intoned a voice. Suddenly Jonny could see a figure moving towards him. He squinted and blinked to try to make out the details.

"Ndovu!" he cried as he recognized the form of the Masai elder he had once known in Tanzania. An elder who was also, somehow, an elephant that had died under Jonny's hands. If he had not recognized the man himself, Jonny could never have forgotten the warm, broad brown eyes that met his with knowing wisdom and familiarity. As he blinked, he could almost see the elephant hovering in and around the form of the man.

"The path of a Sentinel has nothing to do with you," he repeated. "It is a path that belongs to the people you protect."

"I know!" Jonny said with some consternation. "I want to protect people! So why can't I use my abilities anymore?" Then he stopped and considered. "Wait, is that why I'm here?"

"Yes. To become a Sentinel happens in phases, just as a seed becomes a sprout, becomes a sapling, becomes a tree, becomes a seed again. You carried the seed from birth, but sunlight and water gave you life as a sapling."

"You mean how I was born with the right genetics to be a Sentinel, but it took that dose of dad's formula and the environmental factors to make it happen."

Ndovu shrugged. "As a sapling, you have survived so long. But not all saplings continue to become trees. Some are eaten, consumed in a world too harsh for them. Others bow in the wind and never gain their strength. Some simply stagnate and remain as saplings."

"You're saying that I've come to a point where I could grow into being a Sentinel or not?"

"You have been initiated as a Sentinel. Now is the time to make a choice. You can surrender to the easier path and become an ordinary man, or you can embrace your strength and go forward. But if you choose the path of the Sentinel, it will require your life and your soul. Are you prepared to make such a journey?"

Ndovu studied Jonny with a look that reminded him of the elephant he had once known. The elephant who had stared into his heart and soul and chosen him to accompany and protect him on his own final journey. Jonny hadn't known what made him more worthy than Jessie or Hadji to follow the ancient creature to its final resting place, but Ndovu had made it clear that he had seen the difference. He had looked at Jonny with such measurement in his intelligent eyes. The same measurement that was present now.

"When you say it will require my life and my soul, what do you mean?" Jonny asked.

"Your path will belong to the ones you protect. Your life will be as guardian and watchman and warrior. Your burden will be great, and not only your own to bear. If you make this journey, in time you will walk side-by-side with one chosen companion, and your path will become theirs."

"A Guide," Jonny said. "Which means Hadji. If I go ahead and choose to stay a Sentinel, he'll always be my Guide. And at some point we'll get connected like Jim and Blair. I'll give my life to being a Sentinel, and I'll give my soul to Hadji."

"As he will give his to you. If you choose to walk together, you will be lost to each other."

"I'm not afraid to lose myself," Jonny said, shaking his head. "And I'm not afraid to be a Sentinel for life, either. I just don't think it's fair that I get to decide by myself what'll happen to both our lives. Shouldn't Hadji get a vote?"

"The Sentinel must claim himself first," Ndovu said. "The Sentinel must choose the path. Only then may a Guide truly choose a Sentinel."

"Because who wants to be a Guide to a guy who isn't a Sentinel after a while?" Jonny nodded with understanding. "He's got to know who I am and what I can do and what I choose to do before he can decide if he wants to share it with me. Okay, I get that."

"Your soul is strong, young one. You will endure the journey if you so choose."

Jonny let out a long breath. "Jim told me that his teacher taught him that 'A Sentinel will always be a Sentinel if he chooses to be.' I know Jim didn't always want to be a Sentinel. But it's different for me. Now that I've been a Sentinel, I can't imagine wanting to be anything else."

A form appeared from the shadows and perched at Ndovu's feet. Jonny took a step forward, feeling the same sensation that had led him to the cave in the first place. A feeling of connection. Of rightness. Of recognition.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It is you. It is the part of you that you must accept. It will guide you and protect you, and in time it will bind you to your people and to your true Guide."

The form stepped close enough for Jonny to see it clearly. It was a large red fox, its dark eyes winking with ancient clarity.

Jonny dropped to one knee before it. "I'll have to ask Hadji later what this means about me. Probably that I get myself into a lot of trouble and I'm too clever for my own good. But I don't know everything about this. I don't know how not to drive you away. I'm going to need your help, and Hadji is going to need you, too. Be patient with me, okay? I want this so much. Please help me get it right."

Jonny opened his arms. With a leap, the fox threw itself at Jonny. When it should have struck his chest, it sank into him with a flash of light. Jonny curled his arms around himself as though he could cradle the creature he could still vaguely sense within him like an echo of his own heartbeat.

"Remember, young one. Darkness will flee from the light that shines within. You must listen to yourself and not hide from the light, or the darkness will consume you. Deny your path and you will be lost."

Jonny rose slowly and faced Ndovu with his shoulders back and his head up, feeling the strength of something inexplicable burning within him. "Don't worry about me. I won't lose my way."

"May your path be just and your heart be wise," Ndovu raised a hand. "Strength and victory to you, Sentinel."

"Strength and victory, Ndovu. Go in peace, and thank you."

-==OOO==-

Simon looked around his bullpen. Maybe I should just accept that it isn't really my bullpen anymore. I lost a little ground the first time Sandburg made himself at home here, and it's only gone downhill from there.

Jim and Blair sat at their respective desks, each methodically going over the evidence and the few leads that had come in after the highly-publicized campus fire, Race Bannon perched on Jim's and adding his own opinion. Across the room, Joel was taking updates from the officers doing the canvasing and coordinating the search for possible witnesses. At another cluster of desks, Brown and Rafe were going through pile after pile of witness statements, Daryl pouring over the information he had helped catalog for any missed connections. Another set of desks had been appropriated by Doctor Benton Quest who, with Jessie at his side, had opened up three different laptops to coordinate between whatever his computer systems had found.

Rhonda looked up from her own desk and shot him a wry smile. Simon huffed in response, but Rhonda had known him long enough to know that his huff represented his own answering amusement. Apparently he wasn't the only one to notice that Major Crimes was staffed by as many civilians as cops these days.

But that didn't mean it wasn't still his department. Simon cleared his throat loudly. "Listen up, people!"

All heads turned to where he stood, and Simon was privately gratified that he still towered over virtually everyone. Of course, it helped that Jim was seated.

"You've all been working good and hard all afternoon. We need to circle the wagons again and see if we've got anything. Meet in the conference room in five minutes to go over anything new."

He strode on ahead to make sure nobody else was using the conference room – and if they were, to get them out – and he didn't miss Rhonda falling in behind him. The room was thankfully empty, so Rhonda went a few doors down to the break room where she started to make more coffee. Simon smiled; that was a sharp woman he had as an assistant in all things practical around here. Not everyone would realize there was about to be a Major Crimes stampede for the coffee before the meeting.

"We're lucky to have them," she said apropos of nothing as he snagged a cup for himself and stood waiting for the first of the new coffee.

"Have who?" Simon asked. "Quest?"

"Well, yes," she acknowledged, "but I kind of meant the whole team." She eyed the timer on the big coffee-maker and added just a little more water. "There's nobody in that room not giving their best, even Daryl and Jessie. And there's nobody else on the force I'd want solving this case."

"Isn't that the truth?" Simon said softly.

The Ellison-Sandburg team might be the stars of Major Crimes with the best close rate, but frankly Brown and Rafe were right on their heels, and Joel was impressive even without a steady partner. The whole department was the envy of the Cascade PD, and every man on the team had won their place many times over. Having the Quest team get involved was just adding more to an already strong set of dedicated people.

The coffee-maker beeped and Simon had just claimed his cup when the room was filled with more than half the department and guests all edging to get their share. He guarded his own mug carefully as he slipped into the conference room. Benton and Jessie appeared next, still talking rapidly. Brown and Rafe appeared to have won the Coffee Grand Prix as they came in ahead of Blair and Jim, still teasing them. Race entered with Rhonda, and he handed a cup to Benton as Daryl arrived with Joel, the latter apparently having taken his time.

"All right, folks. What have we got?" Simon barely waited for everyone to be sitting.

"Forensics says all the devices, even the two that were in the Rainier building, were really simple," Jim began. "Anybody could make them with a couple of basic tools and an internet connection to pull up the plans."

"But there's something weird about them," Blair said. "Jim noticed that what was left of the bombs didn't look right to him. We didn't know what we were looking at, but he did." He nodded to Race.

Race put in his own opinion. "All the parts are computer parts. Normally people make bombs with, you know, standard wires. The kind anybody might pick up at a hardware store. But these were all really specific. Almost all the components of all the bombs come from the exact kind of materials you use when you build a desktop computer."

"That goes with what we found, captain," Rafe spoke up. As everyone turned to him, he cleared his throat. "Well, the thing is that the original program that ran showed that the bus was probably heading to a collection of technology firms on the edge of the city."

"We assumed that the commuter was heading from the suburbs into downtown," Brown added. "But with the last stuff Daryl put into the program, it looks like it could be the other way around. Our firebug lives in downtown and commutes in the opposite direction."

"That's why the fires have been steadily moving eastward," Simon said as he thought aloud. "He's heading back to work with this stuff."

"That follows with our profile," Benton said. "Jessie and I have been working to compile a basic profile of similar arsonists from all over the world. The characteristics are very clear. Our arsonist is probably a younger man, somewhere between 25 and 40, and likely in a very junior position professionally."

"Low man on the totem pole," Simon said.

"Exactly," Benton nodded. "Most arsonists are emotionally immature, impulsive, and shortsighted. They struggle with their own powerlessness, and they lash out violently when they are upset by it, not necessarily understanding that what they're doing has consequences."

"So we just need to find the office jerk of those tech companies who lives downtown and we'll have our guy," Jim said. "Easier said than done."

"We've already managed to cross-reference the company rosters with housing and the shopping receipts," Benton said. "Our pool of possible perpetrators is actually fairly short, and there's one who stands out..."

Jessie had brought one laptop in with her and it beeped at her. She opened it at once, and the sudden urgency of her posture brought all eyes to her.

"Doctor Quest!" she exclaimed, pushing the computer over.

Simon moved around the table to look over Benton's shoulders. His eyes widened. "Does that say what I think it does?"

"Yes," Benton confirmed.

"People, get ready to move." Simon ordered tersely. He looked around the room even as his well-developed cops' instincts began to scream.

"Our primary suspect, one Rodney Stratton, was fired from his position this morning for an 'unprofessional outburst.'"

"Which means?" Daryl asked in a strangled voice.

"Which means," Jim said darkly as he shot to his feet, "he's just been tipped over the edge. He'll strike again unless we find him first."