Later that morning, Barnes and Malloy walked along the central dirt road dividing the base camp toward the clerk's office. River and Jack had just reviewed with them (and a projected hologram of Rimmer) the new proposal to locate the temporal disruption using their memories as a sort of rift radar.

Malloy and Rimmer had been all for it, not seeing any downside to Malloy recovering knowledge of her past. As the hologram put it, "If it's the cure for her inane questions about 1970s musical bands and other popular culture smeg of this era, then all the better so we can finally stick to the training schedule."

Barnes had also agreed to the plan, keeping his true reservations to himself. He understood the importance of locating the rift. He did not want to put lives at risk because of his own hesitation. However, the idea of losing the comfortable mental fog shrouding his past was terrifying. Bucky Barnes did not want to remember what HYDRA had done... what he had done.

Though his face remained neutral, Malloy must have noticed something was off and she glanced at him with concern.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, her tone a forced casual.

Barnes gave her a wan but reassuring smile and shrugged, "I guess it makes sense. Doesn't seem like they have much else to go on. What do you think about going out in the field with us?"

"It sounds great after sitting on my butt behind a desk all week," Malloy replied, "Though I think me and the typewriter have come to an understanding. It types the letters I want and I promise not to smash it with a hammer."

Barnes chuckled as they continued on down the path. The camp was active today, more soldiers and personnel than usual crowding between the half dome buildings. The pair had to dodge around the opposing foot traffic and motor vehicles trudging down the uneven road.

As a small group of service men passed, Barnes overheard a bit of their conversation.

"Yeah, it was hysterical," one of the soldiers said, "Rand's just standing there chatting up this chick and, all of a sudden, his butt just starts burning. Tripp said he musta had his Zippo in his back pocket or something and it just blew. Saw him sprawled out in the medical bay, ass up and complaining..."

Barnes heard Malloy snort as she failed to suppress a laugh. She covered her mouth and looked up at him guiltily.

"Really?" Barnes asked with mild accusation.

Malloy shrugged, "Just cause some smeghead's ass catches on fire doesn't mean I did it."

Barnes stared at her reproachfully and, after a moment, she relented.

"Okay, okay, it was me. But he deserved it," Malloy said, then added, "Man, I am really bad at this secret agent thing, aren't I?"

Barnes smile faded slightly at her words. He was thinking again of his own role with HYDRA and what things he might have done as a 'secret agent'.

From the other side of the camp, Irene Fielding came running up with an armload of boxes.

"Oh, Malloy, there you are," she said with mild relief, "Would you mind terribly helping me bring these to the medical bay? I could manage but I'd like to stop by stores for more syringes."

"Sure," Malloy replied, taking part of the load, "Barnes, can you let the others know I'll be back in a few?"

Barnes nodded and watched the two women walk away as the loud thump of helicopter blades roared overhead.

In the lot behind Shed 4, Toynbee was sorting through crates of machine parts he was scheduled to deliver to the air strip by mid afternoon. He was making good time getting things in order, even though his mind kept wandering back to the events of breakfast. Every time he thought of Rand's smug face melting into a squawk of alarm, he grinned.

Toynbee could not wait to tell Ink and the other guys that he had been right. Malloy was a mutant. What else would explain what happened to Rand? Maybe he should tell Sergeant Fury too. Maybe that is why Professor Song's research team had been assigned to work with them. Maybe they were all mutants.

He was so preoccupied with these musings, Toynbee did not notice Malloy and the blonde nurse Irene approaching from the road.

"Hello again, Private!" Irene called over the noise of aircraft. Toynbee started at the sound of her voice and turned, knocking over a tin he had been using to collect nails from opened crates.

"Oh, dear, we didn't mean to give you a fright," Irene said as Toynbee crouched to pick up the scattered metal.

Malloy set down the boxes she held and knelt to help him. They exchanged furtive looks, for the time being still sharing the secret of Rand's butt. Malloy smirked as Irene continued to speak above them.

"So sorry to bother you," the nurse said, "But we're in need of syringes in the medical bay. It's so busy today, I thought it would save a trip if we stopped here and picked them up..."

Toynbee and Malloy stood, and the Private nodded.

"Bunch of medical stuff just came in," he said, moving around the crates toward the shed door. After a minute or so, he returned with three smallish boxes labeled with a red cross.

Irene looked appreciative and said, "Wonderful. You can put them right on top of my bundle here and we can be off."

Toynbee hesitated and suddenly got a daring idea. Fury would have his hide on KP duty for a month if he found out. But, after this morning's events, he was feeling bold.

"I could give you a ride," he blurted out before he lost his nerve, "I've got the squad's jeep today. I'm only supposed to be using it to get the larger machine parts to the techs but... I could drive you over to the medi-bay... ya know... if you want..."

"Sure," Malloy agreed, "Thanks, Toynbee."

With happy enthusiasm, he lead the pair around the storage building to a moss colored vehicle parked in front. He motioned toward the jeep, failing to immediately notice a tarp covering the rear seats. A tarp neither he nor anyone else in his squad had put there.

"You can throw those boxes in back," Toynbee said, absently reaching for the heavy cloth, "One of you'll have to sit back here too but there should be enough room..."

Irene tilted her head curiously as the object beneath the tarp was revealed, "I don't think so. Not with that gadget taking up both seats."

"What..." Toynbee began to ask, then froze when he recognized the explosives.

A rectangular metal box shone dully in the mid-day sun. On its surface was a white, egg-shaped object with five vertical red lights as well as a clock with rotating numbers. Toynbee watched with growing horror as the digits, starting at 10:00, began to turn. 9:59... 9:58... 9:57...

"What's in there?" Malloy asked. Toynbee looked at her and, even though his eyes were shielded, his fear was unmistakeable.

"It's... a bomb. And... I think we just triggered the countdown..."

Malloy dropped her bundle and moved next to him to see the device.

"Oh, smeg," she said, "Where the hell did that come from?!"

"I don't think we have time to ask around about it," Irene replied, clutching the syringe boxes to her chest, "If that timer is accurate, it's going to go off in ten minutes..."

"9 minutes 43 seconds," Malloy corrected then grabbed the nurse by the arm and told her, "Irene, I need you to go find Captain Jack or Sergeant Fury. Tell them what we found..."

"But... But, Rebecca, I..." Irene stammered.

"Go, quick! We'll handle things here," Malloy urged her on. The other woman nodded and took off running toward the command bunkers.

Malloy tugged on Toynbee's sleeve urgently, "Get in. You're driving."

"What?" he asked with confusion, "We can't..."

Malloy gripped him by the shoulders. He could feel the heat from her hands through his shirt. He might have enjoyed the contact if there had not been a ticking bomb nearby.

"Listen," she said, "You know I'm kind of a mutant. The Rand thing was just a bad joke but I think I might be able to control an explosion. In case I can't, we gotta get this thing as far away from camp as possible. You know this area way better than me. We've got about what... maybe nine minutes now... to drive as far and fast as possible away from all these people."

Toynbee did not know how to respond, his mind on overload. Part of him wanted to run, to get away from the threat. That was one of the ways he had survived being a mutant since he was old enough to know he could flee the orphanage in York. But another part of him wanted to help, to be useful, to have a purpose, prove his past tormentors wrong.

When he hesitated, Malloy released him from her grip and stepped back.

"I know you don't know me," she said, "A bunch of outsiders show up at your army base and their secretary wants you to drive off with her and car load of explosives. It's crazy! And you've got no reason to trust me. But I wanna try and contain this if I can. If you don't want to come then just tell me where I can..."

"I trust you," Toynbee said, cutting her off. Malloy looked surprised. 'Toad' understood her reaction. His words surprised him too. He did not really trust anyone, not even his mutant teammates to a point. So he was not sure why he just blurted out such certainty about her.

With a quick jump over the side, Toynbee settled in the driver's seat and reached over to shove open the passenger side door. Malloy ran quickly around the vehicle, sat to his right and slammed the door closed.

As he started the ignition, Toynbee asked, "Where are we gonna go?"

"As far as we can take this thing," Malloy said as the mutant soldier got the jeep moving, "Somewhere that's protected, shielded, like a cave or something?"

Toynbee steered the vehicle skillfully through the camp and had an idea.

"There's a ravine," he said, "Before you reach the river. It's just a big ditch really but..."

"That'll have to work," Malloy replied and glanced back at their unwelcome burden, "About eight minutes... think you can get us there by then?"

Toynbee gave her a doubtful glance and floored the gas. Malloy tapped her wrist strap device and spoke into it as they sped off.

"Bucky?" she said, "Can you hear me? We have a problem..."