12:15 PM

"I don't like it," Rook growled.

He sat with his Class I core team at the row of computers at the front of the war room. Plates of mixed vegetables, baked chicken and gritty mashed potatoes steamed, mostly untouched, next to their keyboards while they tossed around names and assembled their search teams.

The commander glanced at the rear door, through the glass window of which he could see Havok and Jane speaking, and then leaned close to Draygoon. "They need chips in their heads."

The security chief looked briefly at Rook. "Why? Because they're so goddamned jittery that they think I'm going to go looking through their brains for things BRiT doesn't want us to know about?"

"I don't like them being secretive with us either, but we need them to trust us fully if we're ever going to build up a working relationship. And when most of them won't meet me in person because they don't want to be around my wingman, we have a fucking problem."

Draygoon looked at the door. "By the way, they're delusional if they think hiding back there is going to do shit. They're talking about how MaxPower got another call from Moguera today."

Jude, on Rook's other side, leaned across him to join the conversation, much to his dismay. "Demetrius Moguera? The president of Giygax Corp?"

"Know any other guys named Moguera? Anyway, he's actually threatening the Council to get them to make sure this Darkling thing is completely covered up."

"Fuck, Dray, this is what I'm talking about," Rook snapped. "We can't be spying on the Mods."

But now the others had turned to listen, and Draygoon wasn't talking to him anymore. "BRiT doesn't want us knowing this, but several of the Mods are Giygax stockholders. Moguera says he's sure the stock will plunge if this gets out, and if the Mods try to cut and run, he'll slam them with an insider trading indictment. The Council's having a shit fit."

Unspun smiled nastily, her fangs adding to the effect. "We got more riding on this one than we thought, don't we?"

"Knock it off," Rook snarled.

"It would be a tall order for Moguera to accuse the Mods of anything if his own company got that kind of bad publicity," Farceur pondered aloud, "but I guess he could pull enough strings to get it done. Depends on how hard of a hit his own assets take, really."

As Jude opened her mouth to respond to him, a spout of flame leapt up between them, barely missing either of their faces, and they both instinctively jerked back, squinting at the heat that stung their eyes.

All eyes flew to Rook as he blew a wisp of black smoke away from his right palm. "I said 'shut the fuck up,'" he said slowly, looking coldly at each of them in turn. "This discussion is over. Dray, get the chips made by the end of the week. One for each Moderator."

"Yes, sir."

"Everyone else, get the teams put together. We're leaving in one hour and forty-five minutes."

His cowed team turned back to their computers. They said no more about Havok and Jane's discussion, but Rook was not pleased. Fingers fidgeting, he swallowed the sudden lump in his throat.

My Class Is just flat-out ignored me.

2:00 PM

Sharply at two in the afternoon, the Class IIs and IIIs, having read their assignments and prepared accordingly, stood sorted into their search groups on the Rook Squad base's grounds, just outside the hangar door. Each Class I, and Havok, stood with a group. Only HrlyQnn's group was unattended, as she was nowhere to be seen, and Jane Deere, who planned on utilizing her speed to cover extra ground and scout ahead, had no group.

"Spread out as far as you can, but stay within sight and earshot of your group leader," Rook called out to the aggregation. "Don't go off alone. We have reason to think there will be opposing forces in the woods today."

At that, the main hangar door began to slide to the side. The industrial lighting inside it illuminated a huge, sleek, low-profile jet, matte-painted for stealth and strapped to the teeth with bombs and air-to-air missiles. This was HrlyQnn's work horse, the Eistensturm, built like a passenger jet on the inside with the capacity to seat nearly all of them and standing room with grip bars for the rest. A good deal clunkier and heavier than a standard Air Force fighter jet, it made up for the lack of mobility with a massive payload and the ability to withstand elevated amounts of physical damage.

Beneath the Eisten's belly, a ramp hissed down and settled against the hangar floor, with a bang that reverberated inside the hangar and out to their ears. Hrly descended the ramp and stood to one side.

"She's ready to go, chief," she called out, and Rook motioned for everyone to begin boarding.

2:21 PM

Annoyed by the bright chime that had awakened him, the pirate king raised his head and looked sleepily at his computer. Invigorated by a deep breath of the salty coastal air, he rose from his bed and staggered across the room to see who had sent him email.

His eyes flew fully open when he saw the name of his correspondent. He opened the email and read quickly.

TOSTIG,

EN ROUTE TO CRASH SITE. ARRIVE IN ~6HRS.

DrD

Closing the email, the pirate king opened the door to his cabin and shouted up from belowdecks. One of the perks of having a high-tech pirate ship with Wi-Fi, he thought, was that he had complete privacy but his entire crew was within his yelling range at all times.

"Darklight, get yer lard ass down here!" he roared.

7:39 PM

The Squad clambered out of the Eistensturm, eager to get back on their feet after the five and a half hour flight. No one wasted any time--they were all happy to be walking again. Rook led all of them to the edge of the crash site first.

"Last night and this morning the firefighters dumped about thirty tons of water over this area," he said to all of them, "so whatever was left after the explosion has been scattered or buried more than it already was. No one's doing an investigation, so we're free to take any evidence we think we need. Be cautious, and be thorough." With that, he dismissed them all. The Class Is fanned out into the woods, and their groups followed them.

Rook and Jane stared at the blasted remains of the cargo plane's skeleton.

"I'm going to the road," said Jane. "I figure I'll run to the nearest town in each direction and see if I can collect information."

Rook glanced down at the cell phones on their belts. "Not much of a signal out here. How do we reach you if we need you?"

She produced a two-way radio. "Havok's got the other one."

With that, she took off running, vanishing instantly, heralded only by the rush of wind in her wake that battered the foliage, and the spray of moist dirt she kicked up at Rook.

Spitting and wiping his face and jacket, he glanced down at the rut her fast-moving feet had created in the soft dirt. Something caught the sun and glimmered at him, and he crouched down to pick it up.

"What in God's name..." he muttered as he examined the object in his hands. It looked like a finger bone with a strip of metal bonded to it.

But it couldn't have been a bone. Hrly's scans had indicated no humans involved in the crash, only the machine cargo. It had to be something else. He dismissed the object, dropping it onto the ground.

"Where's Eyeknow?" he heard Farceur call out.

"I'm over here."

7:45 PM

"Don't go where I can't see you," Farceur warned as he set off in Eyeknow's direction.

"Eye know, but check this out. Look what Eye found," he replied, still out of sight.

Farceur quickened his pace. "What have you got?"

"It's like a blood trail or something--hey, what the fuck, man?"

"What's going on? Eyeknow!" Getting no reply, Farceur broke into a run. Ahead of him, he heard rustling--sounds of a scuffle.

"Motherfucker, I'll kill your dumbass for that--AAAAARGHH!!"

Eyeknow's scream caused several heads to snap in his direction. Farceur burst through a thick patch of low foliage--and there was Eyeknow, crumpling, curling into a fetal position, a fine white cloud settling around him, the curved shards of what looked like a broken test tube glimmering in the dirt in front of him. His assailant stood frozen, staring at Farceur, who recognized him on sight--husky and heavily muscled, surly and clad in dirty work pants, Darklight remained looking at him for a panicked second before turning around and hightailing into the woods.

"Rook! One of Tostig's goons!" Farceur roared. Instinctively holding his sleeve over his nose as he looked at the white dust on the insensate Eyeknow, he backed away, pushing through the thick foliage again to give Rook an easier time finding him. The commander and several others arrived after five tense seconds.

"It was Darklight," Farceur said. "I think he broke a vial of mushroom stamp in Eyeknow's face. He took off that way." Still holding his sleeve over his face, Farceur stepped through the low branches over to Eyeknow.

Havok whipped the two-way from his belt to his face. "We got a situation, Jane, thirty yards north of crash site, agent down, suspect fleeing northeast on foot, over."

"Please repeat, didn't copy that, over."

Rook yanked the radio from Havok's hand. "Darklight was here and he poisoned one of my agents! We're north of the crash site and we don't know how far he's gone! Get your ass over here, Jane, he's getting away!!"