One warning – if my cliffhangers tend to bug you, you might want to wait until the next chapter goes up late this week before you read this one. 'Cause there is a doozy in store. Consider yourselves warned.

Enjoy!


Everyone was on their feet and half-running back to the bullpen, Joel already calling in an All-Points-Bulletin while Brown and Rafe started deciding who would go where to split up and try and find Stratton. But as they cleared the double-doors and people raced to their desks for keys and such, Blair suddenly stopped in the middle of the room. He held out both hands.

"Wait!"

"Sandburg, this isn't the time," Simon began, but the glare levied at him actually surprised him into silence.

"We can't just go speeding out there crazily!" Blair snapped. "He's been loose for hours. He might already have built and placed more bombs. If we start swarming the city without a plan, he'll hit his target before we even know where to look."

"Sandburg's right." Jim stepped up behind his partner and nodded at him. "We have to be smart about this."

"Doctor Quest?" Blair looked to Benton.

"Do it," Benton ordered.

Blair turned back to Simon and took a breath. "Captain Banks, at this time I am invoking my authority as a contractor and deputized agent for the Department of Homeland Security. This threat of terrorism falls within the agency's purview, and I have the right to take over this operation now that we have confirmed a domestic threat." His voice rang with certainty and conviction.

"You can do that, Hairboy?" Henri was staring at Blair, car keys dangling from a finger.

"I can and I just did." Blair glanced at Jim just once for reassurance before he plowed on. "And that means I can speed things up. Race," he looked over to the bodyguard, "put in a call to Howitzer. We'll want a warrant for what we're about to do."

Race grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. "On it, Sandburg."

"Doctor Quest? Jessie?" Blair turned to them.

"Already way ahead of you," Jessie reported. She'd slid into the nearest chair the instant Blair had called for a stop and was typing furiously.

"What will you do?" Joel asked.

Benton had leaned over Jessie and was watching, but he looked up to answer, "As soon as we get that warrant, our network can ping Stratton's cell phone and triangulate his approximate location. We should have it in a matter of minutes."

"What, you can find anybody you want just by knowing their cell phone number?" Brian asked.

"That's how it works," Jessie answered absently.

"Howie wants to know if you want any military dispatched?" Race reported.

Blair actually turned to Simon. "Your call, sir. I can bring the big guns, but if you think we can handle it, I'll tell them to wait."

Simon was still sort of reeling from the rapidity of how the situation had changed. He looked to Jim as if for help, and Ellison grinned broadly at him. "Our little boy's all grown up, Simon." Then, more seriously, "This is still our case, captain. Blair's just giving us a leg up. Like he said, it's your call."

"Keep them back," Simon decided. "I don't want to spook this guy if he sees the whole army bearing down on him. We can always bring them in later."

Race nodded and turned back to his phone, speaking rapidly. Blair moved to stand over where Doctor Quest and Jessie were calculating a more precise location based on their initial results. Jim caught Simon's eye.

"You taking this okay?"

"Me? Sure," Simon said. "It's not like the Feds coming in and taking our case away from us. It's more like having an ace up your sleeve. A really, really big, well-funded ace." Then he frowned. "Why? It bugging you?"

"Me?" Jim was surprised. "No." Then he smiled gently. "I'm just proud of Blair." He lowered his voice. "Benton could have done that himself, you know. Or Race. They've both got more than enough authority and clearance. They let him take it."

"Because he needed it," Simon realized. "He needed to assert his place and his new role. I knew he'd been having kind of a tough time of it in the department."

Jim glanced through the room at the others who staffed the division but weren't really part of the inner circle. Their wide-eyed astonishment shone clearly. Blair had not only just offered an amazing advantage over a very dangerous situation, but he had commanded the room with the confidence and competence of a career captain.

"One good thing to come out of all this," Simon said. "Whatever happens with our perp, I think Sandburg's life just got a lot easier around here."

-==OOO==-

Jonny woke from his meditation feeling…wonderful. He blinked and almost without effort stretched out his senses, taking in the forest around him. And his senses extended beyond his previous range, beyond even his Sentinel best.

"All right!" he yelled, jumping to his feet and doing an impromptu victory dance. "I'm back!"

He could pick Hadji's quiet respiration out all the way back at the lodge, could hear Bandit snoring at his side. Beyond that he could hear the steady footsteps of Ngama walking above the main front gate. The sounds of the forest were soothing, familiar, natural. Jonny felt like he fit inside his skin like never before.

Then he heard Ngama suck in a sharp breath and begin to run for the stairs. Jonny didn't know what Ngama had perceived, but the sudden increase in his heart-rate pounded in Jonny's ears. Without realizing he was doing it, Jonny took his cue from Ngama and started to run as well, both heading to the lodge from opposite directions.

They burst into the greatroom at almost the same moment.

"Jonny!" Hadji rose quickly to his feet. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, Hadj," Jonny spared a moment to grin at his brother. "I'm fine. Better than ever."

"But something is wrong," Ngama said, striding across the room. "Something is very, very wrong."

-==OOO==-

Rodney Stratton sat on the ground, handcuffed. He was average in every way – average height, average weight, his hair a plain sandy-brown, his clothing ordinary and unremarkable. But the look in his eyes, a strangely feral devil-may-care light, made all that blandness oddly sinister.

"What did I do, officers?" he asked in a nasal tone. "I was just getting gas. I wasn't even going to steal it."

Simon towered over him, flanked by his team. For that matter, the entire gas station was surrounded by police.

"Captain!" Jim shouted. He had gone straight for Stratton's vehicle. "There's residue of explosives here, and wire-cutters as well as a few familiar parts and wires."

"Good enough for me," Simon said. "Rodney Stratton, you are under arrest for arson, destruction of private property, and attempted murder."

"Do I need a lawyer?" Stratton asked, and even Blair couldn't tell if he was honestly confused or playing with them. But he was happy to answer.

"As a duly designated agent of the Department of Homeland Security, I should inform you that you could be subject to federal procedures." He smiled darkly, wincing internally at the irony. Naomi would have a fit if she knew what her son was about to threaten. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors. No lawyer is going to save you from where you're going." He let his smile get even more predatory. "That's assuming you ever see a lawyer. Or anybody else outside a chain-link fence for the rest of your life."

At that, Stratton actually paled, his skin going almost translucent white.

Blair maintained eye-contact even though his own words made his skin crawl.

Simon stepped in smoothly. "But if you confess right now and sign a statement as to everything you've done, the DHS won't take custody of you. You'll stay in Cascade for your sentence."

Jim watched Stratton's head rubberneck between Simon and Blair. Simon had feet of height on Sandburg and an imposing manner, and yet it was Blair Stratton cowered from. "Yeah, okay. Just keep the Feds away from me!"

"How many more bombs are there?" Jim demanded.

"Um…well, there's four."

God help us, Simon prayed. "Where are they? And how long do we have?"

"They're…they're all up in the woods. Way far away." Stratton's nerves gave way to the anger that had driven him in the first place. "Stupid people! Stupid Cascade! My place should be safe because they'll have the fires out by then, but all the outer belt stuff can burn to a crisp for all I care."

"The outer belt?" Joel asked. He turned and his eyes fell on the thickly forested mountains that surrounded the city. "Captain, we haven't had more than a sprinkle of rain up there in weeks. It's still the worst of fire season."

"Yeah!" Stratton cheered. "I love the helicopters that dump water on forest fires. Now that's some nice technology. The very best in aerospace—"

"Shut up!" Jim snarled. "Where up there are the bombs? And how soon before they go?"

"Uh, one's over there," he pointed vaguely to the south-east. "One's up there," he pointed to the mountain nearest the eastern suburbs, "way back in campsites off in the woods. The last two are out there somewhere on the side of the big road," he pointed north-east. "I didn't exactly keep a map."

"How much time?" Joel menaced.

Stratton shrugged. "The last two had way shorter timers since the fire has farther to go. The first two probably have about an hour."

Simon almost lunged for the man, and only Blair's grab for his arm kept him from losing his temper completely and inflicting some serious police brutality on the guy. "Simon, don't! We've got to worry about those bombs!"

"Captain," Race said, drawing his attention. The Quests had, of course, refused to be left behind. Keeping Daryl at the office had been a near thing as it was. "We've got a problem."

Simon almost tore the man's head off for his obvious statement but Race charged on. "The two that he says are 'up there?' That's not far from SELF lands."

Simon cursed. Race was right. The two bombs to the northeast could very well be on the same mountain as the SELF lodge. Which was also, incidentally, the direction from which the wind was blowing. Simon didn't need eighteen doctorates to know that if they went up, not only would they take out anybody up at the SELF place, but that fire would sweep down into the city valley with the speed of a hurricane.

"Doctor Quest!" Jessie called. She pushed through the crowd to show a handheld device. "Look!"

"What is it?" Jim asked.

"We've got a satellite overhead," Benton said. "If we can narrow down the search range, we can probably locate the one over there," he pointed to the east, "because the tree cover isn't as dense."

"And we," Blair pointed to himself and Jim, "have the best chance of finding one, too. Jim's good in the woods."

"You said the two up north are on the side of the road?" Simon turned back to Stratton.

"Yeah. Lots of fenced in property up there, so I just dumped 'em."

"We've got to split up," Jim said. "The Forest Service won't find them in time."

Simon knew what he had to do. He just took a moment to rage at the folly of the universe before giving his orders. "Ellison and Sandburg, head south. Quest, you go straight east. Joel, you're with me to the north. Rafe and Brown, get this piece of garbage back to the station and see if you can wrangle any more details out of him. Radio in anything you get. I need you guys to coordinate the bomb squads and the fire service and get them right on our tails. We can't wait for them to scramble."

Brown and Rafe looked at their captain for a moment's wide-eyed surprise before Brian shook himself. "We're on it, sir. The backup will be on its way before we even get to the interrogation room." He reached down to haul Stratton to his feet, Brown belatedly joining him. They both started back to one of the cars, one arm on their prisoner and the other pulling out phones to begin shouting orders.

"You lot!" Simon raised his voice to all the other uniforms on the scene. "This is an emergency! Get the word out and start setting up police lines all along the eastern side of the suburbs. Anybody sees fire, call it in. And keep all civilians out of those mountains!"

Then he was striding towards his own vehicle, rapidly calling in the situation to the Commissioner and requesting emergency procedures, which he was immediately granted. He'd just opened his car door when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Make it fast, Quest," Simon growled.

Benton nodded solemnly. "We won't let you down. Just…take care of my boys."

Simon swallowed a bitter lump and nodded. "I'll call them from the road. If they have any sense, they'll be on their way before we even get up there to try to diffuse the bombs."

Jim and Blair were already running to the truck, but at Simon's words which Jim had tracked even through the chaos, he groaned.

They've got sense, all right. The wrong kind of sense!

-==OOO==-

Jonny hung up his phone and looked across to Ngama and Hadji. "Dad says there's a couple of bombs up here capable of starting a wildfire. He says for us to clear out." He turned to look out across the forest. The view from the roof of the lodge really was spectacular.

"I note that you aren't moving," Hadji said dryly.

Ngama nodded at Jonny. "I too feel it."

"You mean that weird churning in your stomach that says you have to do something, not just run away?"

"Yes," Ngama said with the ghost of a smile. "That exactly."

"We should have a little time to figure something out," Jonny said. "Dad says the bombs aren't set to go for another half hour or more."

Both Sentinels suddenly twitched and turned to the north. An instant later, there was a deep BOOM.

"Scratch that," Jonny said as smoke began to rise in the distance. His nose twitched as the brisk wind carried a scent to him. "Looks like our firebug needs a new watch."

-==OOO==-

Simon and Joel were just turning onto the highway that led up the mountain when Brown radioed in.

"Captain! One of the choppers on the alert reports smoke up your direction!"

"Dammit!" Simon swore. "Mobilize the emergency crews. We need them up here now!"

"Simon, it's so dry up here it's like a barn fire – the forest will go up in a matter of minutes. That fire can spread almost twice as fast as you or I can walk!"

Looking up the road into the first turn and not knowing how soon he might come upon a wall of flames, Simon could only grimace.

-==OOO==-

Jim and Blair had been listening to the scanner and both felt the hot streak of alarm go through them at that news. Blair didn't even fault his partner for increasing his reckless driving by a few degrees of magnitude, pushing the truck up into the southern wilds at speeds normally even Jim would blanch at.

"How are we going to find the bomb?" Blair asked breathlessly.

"He said it was at a campsite," Jim said tightly. "That narrows it down to the part that isn't private property or national park. I know the area pretty well."

"Yeah, but…" Blair trailed off.

Suddenly Jim slammed on the brakes hard. The truck skidded to a halt at a fork in the road.

"What the hell, Jim?" Blair cried.

"Look!"

The jaguar and the wolf stood on one of the two roads ahead of them, both of them growling fiercely, their hair raised and their tails lashing angrily.

"I vote we go that way!" Blair yelled.

Jim hit the gas and sped up that branch of road as the pair of spirit animals impossibly ran ahead of them. When they reached a camping area, they dashed into the parking lot and gestured away into the tree before vanishing.

"Come on!" Jim shouted, bounding from the truck almost before he'd turned off the ignition.

Blair paused just long enough to grab his phone before following.

-==OOO==-

"Race, I've got it!" Benton shouted. Race had been driving their van at speeds he felt pretty sure meant they'd be replacing the whole vehicle after the wear-and-tear, but Benton's cry didn't even cause him to pause.

"Where?" he asked tersely.

"Another two miles along this road, then turn off to the right."

"It should be down a path to the east," Jessie added. "Less than a couple hundred yards."

"Will it do any good for me to tell you to stay behind with the van?" Race asked.

"Not a chance," Jessie declared.

-==OOO==-

"We have to do something!" Jonny said, watching horrified as the fire spread. The second bomb had exploded only a few minutes after the first, and now a wall of flame was steadily growing as it began to bear down on them.

"Think, my friend!" Hadji said suddenly. "When faced with a situation far beyond what any man could bear alone, what does he do?"

"Not a good time for a riddle, Hadj," Jonny glared.

"Read more history," Hadji advised. "Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. Helen Keller."

"What are you saying?" Ngama asked.

Hadji took a deep breath. "Recall the history of your own people, Ngama. In times of great calamity, your people summoned a guardian, a being of spirit and energy that was able to defend your people from danger. We are both intimately aware of what such a creature can do, if we could only call upon its assistance."

"Ngama, can you do what your shaman did?" Jonny pressed. "Do you know the ritual?"

Ngama let out a breath. "I do know it, and thanks to my father's supplies we even have the necessary components," he said, "but it is very dangerous. I am not a shaman."

"But Hadji is," Jonny replied. However, Hadji was shaking his head.

"Last time the shaman cast this ritual, it was I who stood as the anchor for the creature," he said. "It did not endanger me as it did you, Ngama. I cannot be the one to summon it – I must be the one to whom it is linked."

"No way!" Jonny almost shouted. "No way are you going to be the one that thing uses to get here!"

"Do you have a better idea?" Hadji challenged him.

"Yeah, I do," Jonny nodded. "Ngama does the ritual on both of us. I'll be the physical strength, and you can be the spiritual strength."

"Can it be done?" Hadji asked.

"Yes," Ngama nodded. "The legend is that this ritual is meant for a Sentinel and Guide to share, that their energies together make the creature stronger. The guardian almost killed me partly because I was not a Sentinel yet and partly because the shaman is not my Guide, and he did not share in it with me. He told me this himself while...convincing me to become his Sentinel over the tribe."

"Then we'll do it together," Jonny caught Hadji's eyes and held them.

His brother nodded. "Yes. Together." He turned to Ngama. "Show us what to do."

Which is how the three of them found themselves on the roof of the lodge, looking out at the smoky forest before them. Ngama had the drum on his lap and he had cleared an area to set down the biggest pot in the kitchen in which they had built a tiny fire.

"You must not hesitate," he warned Hadji, who knelt over the fire with more than a little uncertainty on his face. "Your will is what will be the saving of you."

"I believe in you, Hadj," Jonny said stoutly, sitting beside his brother.

"Then I choose to believe in your belief," Hadji said.

Ngama began the drumming and the chant.

-==OOO==-

"They'll never make it!" Simon nearly drove off the road in his haste. "The Forest Service fire-fighting team is too far away!"

"Simon, those kids should have had plenty of warning," Joel said. "We should have seen them on the road by now heading our way."

"I know," Simon growled and tried to coax a few more miles-per-hour from the car. "That's what worries me!"

But as they wound around another bend in the road, Simon had to slam on the brakes as an enormous figure loomed over the hillside.

"God help us, what is that!?"

It was just over thirty feet in height, but its size seemed almost fluid, subject to change from moment to moment. The whole thing looked almost unreal, like a shape projected onto the scene with lights and lasers, its edges blurry and shifting. But the brush that crunched under its feet as it moved illustrated its reality.

Joel looked at Simon with wide eyes. "It's them, somehow, isn't it?" he knew intuitively.

Simon could only shrug.

The creature was an odd hybrid, and as it solidified with every step it took, its shape became more and more distinctive. It was something like a gryphon, but where a true gryphon had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, this was a mix of an eagle and a fox. The head was shaped like an eagle's, the beak curving sharply, but instead of feathers it was covered with a dark red fur. The basic shape was that of a fox, complete with the glorious plume of a tail that seemed to have flashes and streaks of other, foreign colors running through it. Springing from the creature's shoulders was a pair of eagle's wings, every feather outlined translucently against the sunlight.

The fox-eagle gave a cry that was like no sound either animal could produce, a cry of anger and protectiveness and fear and fury. And then it charged towards the fire that was still eating away at the mountainside beyond.

"Simon, how...?" Joel rubbed a hand over his face, unable to finish the question.

"I don't know," Simon shook his head, downright numb with shock. Then he forced himself to breathe normally and regain control. "But I think we better get to the lodge even faster now."

Still, he couldn't take his eyes from the creature that was now fighting the forest fire as though it were an opponent.

Unfortunately, the fire appeared to be winning.

-==OOO==-

When Hadji had been the vessel for the spirit guardian before, he had had no awareness of the creature's actions in the real world, but instead had been painfully aware of its drain on his mind and soul from inside. He had felt the door ripped open in his spirit through which the guardian had come to manifest, and he had been aware of Jonny breaking as many metaphysical laws as he could to use Questworld to try to fight it off before it destroyed Hadji as it had almost destroyed Ngama.

But that, Hadji now knew, was a totally different situation. Then, it had been a shaman invoking a power without the permission of the Sentinel who was its vessel, a shaman who knew the ancient ways and rituals but lacked the spiritual fortitude to join with the young Sentinel fully in the mind.

Hadji was aware of Jonny's mind, or perhaps his soul, hovering just at the edge of his awareness. But Jonny's focus was elsewhere; Hadji had directed his brother's mind to their manifested spirit creature. He understood intuitively that he could, if he wished, exert effort and put his own mind there, seeing through the guardian's eyes and combating the danger directly. But that was not how this was meant to be done. In the way the universe tended to reveal itself to him, Hadji had come to understand this miraculous ability.

It was the combined souls and strengths of a Sentinel and Guide that made it possible. The Guide, as shaman, invoked the trance state and worked the powers of the mind. The Sentinel, as guardian, provided the unique strength as well as lending a depth of perception to what would otherwise be an unaware spirit presence. It took both to manifest enough energy and to fill it with will and awareness.

What had been done to Ngama was not how this process was meant to work. Then, the medicine man of his people had used Ngama, taken the strength from his young body and mind. But that shaman had also pushed the Sentinel almost to the point of death so he could himself be the mind and will within the guardian, taking what should be a balanced effort and ripping away any choice Ngama might have had. It was only because the shaman had poured so much of himself into it, and taken so much from Ngama already, that Hadji had managed to insert himself into the process to save his friend's life the first time.

If Hadji, even with Jonny's permission, upset the delicate balance of this act, one of the two of them would be in grave danger. Just as Ngama had been pushed to near the point of death by the ruthless choice of that shaman, Hadji had the power to take Jonny's strength and spirit for his own and push all the physical consequences and backlash on his brother. But, of course, Hadji would will himself dead before he would ever do such a thing.

In the strange void of his own mind, Hadji monitored the otherworldly spirit powers, keeping them balanced and controlled, unable to see what choices Jonny was making outside, but knowing in his very soul that he could trust his Sentinel with those choices completely.

-==OOO==-

"Race, do you know what you're doing?" Benton asked as he looked at the sinister device.

"Yeah, sure," Race grumbled. "Like riding a bike. A really explosive bike."

But his wry commentary aside, Race had seen much better bombs than this one before in his time. This had been printed off the internet and assembled in a kitchen by someone who couldn't rewire a wristwatch.

"Okay, gang," he said after another minute. "I'm going to count down from ten and make the cut. I want both of you over there behind that boulder," he pointed. "It should shield you from a blast and give you enough shelter to clear out if it goes wrong."

"But dad!" Jessie protested.

"No, Ponchita," he said firmly. "You duck, just in case." He looked up to his best friend. "Benton?"

"I understand, Race." I understand you're pretty sure everything will be fine, but you can't trust yourself enough to let us stand here. I understand you are taking a risk and you won't risk me or your daughter. I understand that if you happen to be wrong and the worst happens, I will take care of Jessie. I understand that you are sorry and you can't bear to say goodbye.

Benton took Jessie by the hand and began to walk.

"Dad!" she called again.

"Don't," Benton told her. "Trust him. Trust him and he will better trust himself."

Behind the rock, Benton pushed Jessie to the ground and curled protectively over her. As Race began the countdown, Benton closed his eyes. He'd never been a man of prayer, but now he hoped with all his heart that he was not about to lose the man who had been his family for so long.

"Ten."

Jessie trembled and clung to Benton's shirt.

"Nine. Eight. Seven."

"I believe in your father. Don't you?"

"Six. Five."

"Yes."

"Good girl."

"Four."

"I love you, dad!"

"Three. Two."

Please.

"One."

The only sound was a sudden silence.

-==OOO==-

It was too much for them. Hadji could feel it, the tearing chaos ravaging at the edges of his consciousness. When he had stood in Ngama's place and the guardian had ripped through his mind to manifest, it had been Jonny's battle in a strange combination of virtual reality and a metaphysical manifestation that had prevented the guardian from overwhelming him. Even then, they had only needed to withstand the guardian's presence for a matter of minutes. Time had lost its meaning, but Hadji knew they had clearly surpassed the strength of his own mind.

Show me, Hadji commanded. And in the world of the mind, his command was absolute.

Like a window opening, Hadji could perceive and comprehend. It wasn't visible, not something he could have drawn or photographed. But he innately understood that these swirls of sensation were himself, these were Jonny, and this crackle like lightning was the guardian breaking them apart. And with the same strength that brought him insight, he also knew he had the ability to change what was before him. And change it he must, for without some kind of intervention, the guardian would destroy them both.

Forgive me, Jonny. My friend. My brother. My Sentinel.

Hadji redirected the guardian and all awareness vanished.

-==OOO==-

"Focus, Jim!" Blair cried. "He said it would go in just a few minutes!"

"You should get back to the truck!" Jim replied angrily, still striding through the dense undergrowth.

"No way!" Blair stomped furiously after him. "Partners, man! Remember?"

Jim was about to argue with him, but a scent caught him and he turned, automatically piggybacking his sight to his nose and tracking it. A clearing ahead – and a detonator! "There!"

Jim pelted through the last yards of the forest to where the small campsite sat eerily still. A barrel was leaning against a picnic table with a small box wired to it.

"Joel!" Blair shouted into his phone. "It's a bomb! Tell us what to do!"

Jim opened his hearing for the reply. "Don't touch it!"

"No can do," Jim reported as he came to a stop. "This thing's set to blow."

Blair appeared beside him and gulped. "Joel, it goes off in less than three minutes!"

"Get out of there!" came the order. "You can't diffuse it that fast!"

"And if it blows, the fire could take out half of Cascade!" Jim shouted.

"Clear out of there, Jim!" came Simon's voice. "Let the firefighters and Forest Service people handle that if it happens!"

Jim wanted to. He wanted to run. But he couldn't. If this barrel went up, the volume of the explosive would carry fire for yards through the dense, dry forest. By the time anyone equipped to handle a forest fire arrived, they'd be talking about acres and acres of burning ground and with the stiff wind it would only increase. The smoke and flames would bear down on the southeastern suburbs. So many people's homes and lives would be in peril.

His place was here, at the heart of the danger, to prevent it if he could.

"Sandburg," he said roughly.

"I know," Blair's voice was low and firm. "I'm with you, Jim."

A sparkle of profundity wound around them both.

"We've got time for one good move or maybe two," Blair said, eyeing the timer that had dropped under ninety seconds. "What do you think, Jim?"

"If I can trace which wire is the ignition, I can pull it out," Jim answered.

"Good thinking!" Blair cheered. "The ignition wire should smell different because it has to produce an actual spark at the end."

And if I fail, Jim thought morosely, I'll get my face blown off.

He glanced at Blair. And my Guide will die.

Never.

-==OOO==-

"Hadji!" Jonny sat up with the scream caught in his chest.

"Jonny!" Ngama stared. "What is happening?"

"I was the guardian," Jonny said breathlessly, scrambling to his knees and lunging to Hadji's still form. "We were it together but I was its eyes and brain. And I felt like…we were dying. And then Hadji was there and…"

"The guardian remains," Ngama pointed, "but it is not what it was."

Jonny didn't need Sentinel vision to see a vast tawny eagle battling the last of the wildfire, nor did he miss that its form was flickering dramatically.

"He took it all into himself," Jonny grabbed for Hadji's shoulders where his brother was stretched out limp on the rooftop. "He pushed me out because the guardian was killing us! And now it's killing him!" He looked up wildly. "What do I do?"

"I don't know," Ngama admitted.

"Hadji! Hadji! Come on! You can't do this!" Jonny had pulled his brother half into his arms and was almost hyperventilating. "Please, just let the guardian go!"

"If he does that," came a new voice, "many lives will be lost."

Jonny's head snapped up even though he somehow knew the voice was not something he could perceive with his ears. "Ndovu?"

"The Guide has chosen your life, and the lives of those below, over his own. He will remain with the guardian spirit until his own is exhausted." The old man, brown elephant eyes solemn, stood before him.

"No!" Jonny roared, hugging the still body, all his senses feverishly tracking the slowing heartbeat, the shallow respiration.

"You wish to save him, Sentinel?"

"Yes!"

"You must be patient, young Sentinel. You will have your opportunity when his spirit falters. You will bring him back to you with your own power, and his path will become yours."

Jonny looked down at Hadji with a gulp. "Bonding. Like Jim and Blair. And he'll never be able to…we'll…" He looked up, stricken. "You told me before he would have a choice!"

"He will," Ndovu answered calmly. "Life is a constant, no matter its vessel. This path is yours. If he chooses to refuse it, he will find another elsewhere."

"Where?" Jonny demanded.

"Where doesn't matter," Ndovu said, frowning. "Elsewhere."

"You're saying…I'll give him a way back here. But if he doesn't take it, he won't be Hadji anymore. The Hadji I know will die. And he'll…go on like you. Or get reborn. Or something." Jonny blinked harshly against the tears tracking down his face.

"Yes."

"Oh god," he bent his head to Hadji's, alarmed at the coolness of his skin.

"Wait, Sentinel. And when his strength fails, make your choice."

Jonny sobbed once, low and deep. He'd knocked Hadji's turban askew and now he buried his face in Hadji's long hair. He forced words out through ragged breathing.

"It's already made on my side, Ndovu. It was never really a choice at all."

-==OOO==-

"You did it!" Jessie cheered, bounding from behind the rock and racing to her father.

"Yup," he smiled, his face shiny with sweat. "It was a near thing, but the ignition wire's out. Now we just take it apart bit by bit."

"I can help," Benton said, smiling broadly.

Race wanted nothing more than to refuse, to send them back behind the cover in case the thing decided to blow anyway. It was still explosive, still dangerous. But the look in Doctor Quest's eyes stopped him. Those pale eyes could be laughing or commanding or inquisitive or kind, but now they were blazing.

Race nodded. I understand, Benton. You let me do this alone once, but you won't let me be alone anymore. I just hit the limit of what you can stand. And now you know I'll be safer if you're here helping me this time.

"Stay back, Jessie," Race said anyway. With careful movements, the two men began picking apart the pieces of the inert bomb.

Their phones went of simultaneously. Jessie picked up hers.

"We're okay," she said quickly.

Simon's yell was part fear and part anger. "Yeah, well, Jim and Blair aren't!"

-==OOO==-

Jim didn't have time for the despair to crawl up his chest.

"Chief, I can't!" he turned to his partner, face stricken. The wires were all saturated in scents that made them hard to tell apart.

"You can!" Blair insisted. "Come on, Jim! Focus!"

"I am!" he roared, pushing his face as close as he dared to the device. But it was too much, too fast, with only seconds. The wires looked the same! They smelled wrong, all of them! His fingers hovered over the bundle uncertainly.

Oh god. The timer.

"I'm so sorry." Jim whispered the words with the last three seconds.

Blair's hand was suddenly warm on his as the last second ticked down. "I'm here, Jim."

...Nothing happened.

"Um. Is it…?" was all Blair could ask breathlessly.

Jim blinked incredulously at the device. The timer read zero. It should have gone off.

"It should have blown," he said shakily. Then the realization hit him.

He spun away from it and flung his arms around Blair. His heart was pounding in his chest and he pressed his face into the top of Blair's head. His Guide had grabbed him and was squeezing him for all he was worth, and neither could tell who was shaking harder.

"You could have…" Jim said hoarsely.

"You too," Blair answered with a hiccupping sound.

"Next time I tell you to go back, you go!" Jim wasn't sure if he was shouting or begging.

"No way." The sudden solidness of Blair's words brought Jim up short and he blinked in surprise. He leaned back enough to catch his partner's eye.

"Blair, you were almost…"

"We're in this together, Jim," Blair said with a strange, blazing power. "Life and death, Jim. I'm your Guide and you're my Sentinel. A bomb this week or nuclear disaster next week or a plague next month or an angry Mayor or killer bees or World War Three. I'm at your side until the end." His eyes flashed. "And we'll be right there on the edge, saving the day or dying trying. Together."

"Together," Jim repeated the word wonderingly.

"Together." Blair smiled. "And sometimes the universe will give us a gift, like this. And if it doesn't, then we'll still be together. That's how it works, man."

There again was that trickle of light and water and sensation and memory and Jim knew, even if he hated it, that Blair was right. They were in it together forever, no matter what. Jim had called Blair back from death, and now they were linked. And not even a bomb would part them – even if it relocated them rather violently.

Jim didn't have to like the idea to accept that it was true. He settled for hugging Blair once more before briskly letting go and turning back towards the bomb.

"I just want to make sure it won't give us any surprises, Chief," he explained.

He bent close and peered. Then he jerked back in shocked surprise.

"What?" Blair asked.

"It's not possible." Jim shook his head, blinked his eyes, and looked again.

Moments before, he had been touching these very wires, trying to decide which to disable. But now, one wire, an innocuous one in the bunch, was cut. Cut as cleanly as if he had sliced it with his pocket-knife.

Except he hadn't.

Jim heard the cry of a wolf and the answering roar of a jaguar. From Blair's gasp, he guessed his partner had heard them too.

Blair leaned close until he could see what Jim still couldn't believe. He let out a shaky breath and wondered if he was going to throw up. "Mysterious times, man. Mysterious times."

"It's not possible," Jim said stubbornly.

"Maybe it is," Blair answered. He felt the slightest touch of a rush of hyper-awareness and took a deep breath to keep from being drawn into whatever was pulling at his fledgling shamanic nature. "I can't explain it, but maybe we don't have to. Maybe it's just enough to know that this time we were greater than the sum of our parts. Jaga always talked about a united Sentinel and Guide as though there were something about them that was…beyond."

"Beyond?"

"Beyond the norm. Beyond what normal people could do or be or understand." Blair smiled. "Maybe a Sentinel and a Guide protecting their tribe get a few extra karmic favors."

"Maybe," Jim said doubtfully.

The wolf howled again.

"Don't even think about it," Jim snapped irritably. "I'm way too on edge for you creepy dreamwalking annoyances today!"

The jaguar snarled almost like a sharp retort.

And even though his heart was pounding a million beats a minute, Blair started to laugh. He knew he was onto something, but he also knew when to let the universe reveal itself in due time.

"It's not funny, Sandburg," Jim groused.

"No, you're right," Blair managed around a gulp. "It's a miracle."

Jim looked at him soberly, his imagination feeding him an image of the bomb blowing, of both their bodies ripped apart by fire and force, of a last searing pain the only thanks for their attempt to serve their people. Jim could have lost his Guide today. And Blair could have lost his Sentinel. But they were both alive and safe.

"You're right," he said with reverence. "It is a miracle."