The two top agents exchanged a look. Draygoon opened his mouth, paused, then decided against speaking. Rook, however, clasped his hands and placed them on the desk in front of him. He sat up straighter, and cleared his throat.

"Fuck up?"

An acrid smell, like the ash from a candle, began to emanate from Rook's clenched hands.

Ah, shit, HrlyQnn fumed. Here it comes.

"Fuck up?" Rook raised an eyebrow. "The person who fucked up, sir, was the one who gave us bogus information."

A loud cough turned all heads. MaxPower leaned forward, incredulous at the accusation. "What?"

Rook stood. "I said we were given an inaccurate intelligence briefing. Three of us went out to secure the plane, and only two came back. I'm not going to sit here and let you berate me for doing my job, because I have funeral arrangements to make."

"Sit down, Rook!!" BRiT roared, loud enough to make his cats scamper. A sudden burst of static rang through the war room, and the screen went completely black for several seconds. Rook sat. When the screen flickered back to life, BRiT was leaning back in his chair, having regained his composure. "I have warned you about speaking out of line, Commander Rook. I understand your agitation, but I will not tolerate disrespect."

"There have been no respectful words from you to me so far, Councilman."

BRiT paused, biting his lip. "Commander… the fact is that you, Draygoon and Gea should have been more than enough to prevent two attackers from endangering that plane. Regardless of the completeness of Councilman MaxPower's briefing of the situation, three reasonably competent Class I agents should have been able to deal with it."

"The flaw in the information given to us was that there were actually three attackers."

Rook had to suppress a grin at the "oh-shit" look on MaxPower's face as the Council stirred. BRiT's eyes narrowed.

"We gathered that Public Enemies #1 and 7, Phrosty and Stardust, had attacked the plane."

Rook's lips were still pressed tightly together, so Draygoon spoke at last. "They did. But they had some new guy with them. A young punk, they called him 'Killer Bean' or some shit. I only got a brief look at him, but Jesus, he would not die. He had some sort of accelerated healing factor to him. His ability, plus the fact that he was even there to begin with, caught us off guard. Everything went to hell after we lost Gea."

Rook scowled. "If we'd known about him beforehand I would have brought at least six to ten of my best agents."

BrIONwoshMunky nodded. "Killerbean. Just another little shitbag who thinks he's God because he was born with a mutagen. We have him on file but he's one of the many who's never signed up for the Rook Squad."

"Phrosty probably had no trouble talking him into joining up with him. We need to find him, and fast. He's gaining more allies every day," Gehtfuct mumbled, more to himself than the room.

Draygoon slouched. "I didn't even think to interrogate Stardust."

"You have her in your custody, I understand?" said MaxPower.

"Yes."

"Do it now."

"I will," said Farceur, stopping Draygoon from standing with a hand on his shoulder. "You've had a hard enough day. I've at least gotten a few hours of sleep." Draygoon nodded. Farceur strode between the rows of chairs towards the exit door, which hissed open to allow him through.

BRiT locked eyes with Rook. "You will be pleased to know that we have decided to back you in any means necessary on the search for the missing Darkling unit. As it appears you are in need of assistance in field combat, I will be sending HavokChylde to offer counsel and extra firepower."

"I appreciate the gesture and you know as well as I do that we would all be overjoyed to have HavokChylde as an operating field agent again," said Rook, "but we don't need…"

"—Furthermore, to aid in the search," BRiT continued at a louder volume, cutting Rook off, "Jane Deere will be arriving with him. I trust she will be a boon in covering ground quickly. Find that Darkling unit, Commander."

Rook sighed. "We will, Councilman. Anything else?"

"Find out as much as you can about Killerbean from Stardust, of course, and we will do the same from what sources we have on our end. That will be all."

Rook nodded, and moved to hang up the call.

BRiT's voice halted him again. "Commander."

"Yes, sir?"

"Inform us when the date of Gea's memorial service has been set."

"Yes, sir."

The line went dead on the Council's end. Rook shut off the large screen and sat back heavily. He rubbed his aching head.

"What now?" 53V3N piped up.

"I'm going the hell to bed, that's what," said Rook. "The search starts first thing in the morning. And someone get the Twos and Threes up early to straighten up the gym for when the Mods show up."

Nods all around. The group of them were just heading for the door to the barracks when the emergency PA in the wall by the giant flat-screen crackled to life.

"CONTAINMENT FAILURE!" Farceur's voice snapped from the speaker. "REPEAT, CONTAINMENT FAILURE!! SOMEBODY GET DOWN HERE RIGHT THE FUCK—"

A crash, and then silence.