Chapter 20

The Hot Blond in the Tight Black Jeans

During the third year of the Cylon occupation, one of the best planned and most devastating of all the terrorist attacks destroyed a Cylon lab run by Dr. Gaius Baltar. Rumors began circulating about the nature of the work being done in the lab, alleging it had to do with efforts to produce a viable human-Cylon hybrid; however no confirmation was ever forthcoming. Dr. Baltar steadfastly maintained that their work dealt with Artificial Intelligence.

-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

Lee was already one drink past the point he should have stopped. He wasn't drunk yet, but he was getting there. He was sitting in a nice pub near his new apartment and watching the rerun of a pyramid game on the television above the bar as he sipped his fourth, or was it fifth, drink of the evening. Not that it really mattered. They were getting the job done, moving him closer to oblivion one sip at a time.

On the screen Sam Anders was dominating the play. He was captain of the Buccaneers now and also their star player. Lee hadn't seen Sam except on television since that night at McGee's two years earlier. He still felt bad about the way Lissa had dumped Sam for John, but it happened to the best of them. Blaire had dumped him for Laura Roslin's aide. What did Billy Keikeya have that he didn't have except that he was around all the time? He refused to believe that Billy might be better at anything else. Or treat her better. The thought that Billy might be better in bed made him laugh.

Lee had been doing fine about the breakup until tonight…until he'd started unpacking some boxes he had stored at his parent's house.

He had moved into an apartment earlier in the week, a nice one-bedroom in a new building in a good part of the city. He liked everything about his new place, the location, the view, and the layout. That morning his furniture had been delivered. He would be paying for it for sixteen months, but it was worth it.

Zak had helped him get the four boxes from the attic of their parent's house. They had loaded them into his car and carried them into the building and up the elevator. But Zak hadn't hung around afterward. Ever since the fight things between him and Zak had changed. They had moved in different directions, the close camaraderie of childhood had vanished like contrails behind a Viper. Lee wanted to make things better but he didn't know how. He knew Zak was unhappy about being at the Academy. He also knew Zak blamed him for being there as much as he blamed their father.

Earlier that evening Lee had sat down to unpack the boxes, mostly personal items he'd had at the Academy and while he was in Flight School but didn't have room to take to the Triton with him…CDs, books and pictures, several model ships he'd put together as a kid and his Top Gun trophy. He'd done fine until he'd gotten to the photograph album that Blaire had made for him after his Academy graduation and their trip to the island.

He should have just put it back in the box...or trashed it. Instead he had made the mistake of opening it. Maybe even then he would have been all right if he'd stopped at the first photo, but he had looked through the whole thing, each page causing the fist around his heart to tighten a little more. There they were at the spring dance and at his Academy graduation and the party and on the island. There was Blaire looking so cute and hot in her bikini. She was smiling and looking so happy and he looked happy, too. He didn't think it could still hurt that badly.

He'd done exactly what John had thought he'd do when he'd gone back to the Triton for his last four months of duty. Before that first week was over he had shared a bunk with another Viper pilot. She was enthusiastic and physically he'd done fine, physically he'd enjoyed it, but afterward there was an emptiness he hated, an emptiness that had never been there with Blaire. Maybe John was okay having mindless sex with a woman, but it didn't work for him at all.

He never did try it in the shower. He couldn't muster the enthusiasm.

He threw the album across the room and suddenly the walls seemed to close in on him. He grabbed his jacket, took the elevator down to the street and started walking. He found the pub less than two blocks away. The 6:00 news was coming on when he took his first drink. Blaire would be on her way home.

He looked at his watch. Almost 7:30. Blaire would be home, should have been home an hour ago. He had gotten a mobile phone two days earlier. He took it out and punched in her number. Dee answered. Dee always answered. What did she do, sit on top of the frakking phone all the time?

"Let me speak to Blaire," he made a point to pronounce each word carefully. It wouldn't do to have Dee tell Blaire he was getting drunk over her.

"Are you drunk, Lee?"

"Just put Blaire on."

"She's not here."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know. Where are you?"

"I'm at…" he looked at the bartender and asked, "What's the name of this place?"

"Zeno's Tavern."

"I'm at Zeno's Tavern. When Blaire gets back tell her I'm at Zeno's. That's Zeno's Tavern, not to be confused with the electronics store. She needs to come down here and face me. She should have the guts to break up with me in person, not write me a damned letter."

"I'll tell her, Lee, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting if I were you."

Lee ended the call. He almost said the word bitch out loud and then realized that none of this was Dee's fault. But he was sure she would give Blaire the message.

For the next thirty minutes he watched the door even though he knew Blaire wasn't going to show up. That's why he was watching when the blond came in with the two guys, the hot blond wearing tight black jeans, a long-sleeved black turtleneck and a black down vest. He wasn't close enough to get a really good look at her, and the lights in the pub weren't the brightest, but he could tell that she was beautiful and hot. There was a confidence about the way she walked, a frak-you attitude in the way she carried herself. A girl like that would never write him a letter to break up with him. A girl like that wouldn't be afraid to face him. A girl like that wouldn't be afraid of anything.

She was with the younger guy, a little taller than average, dark-hair, wearing glasses, not bad-looking. They went toward the back on the other side of the room and sat in a booth. The girl slid in first, closest to the wall and the young guy slid in beside her. The older guy sat across from them. He was in his forties, crew cut, tough-looking, still in good shape, wearing a sweater over a shirt and tie but probably ex-military.

The waiter carded the girl and the younger guy, used a pen light to look at their IDs. They were at least nineteen because the waiter returned in a few minutes with three beers.

How do you meet a girl who's with two guys when one of them looks like he could and would kick your ass as soon as look at you? You wait for her to go to the restroom. That's what you do. You wait. She'd have to come right past him to get to the restroom.

She hardly touched her beer, though. Both guys drank theirs, and then the younger guy took her beer and finished it. They looked like they were in a deep discussion when Lee realized that someone had sat down on the barstool beside him.

"Hi, Lee."

"What are you doing here, Dee?"

"Blaire's not coming."

"So you volunteered to deliver the message?"

"She doesn't know I'm here."

Lee switched his gaze back to the pyramid game.

After a minute he said, "Look, Dee, you shouldn't have bothered coming down here. I never thought Blaire would show up. I mean she wrote me a letter. Why would I think she'd have the guts to face me now?"

He glanced at the booth. The blond girl was gesturing to the guy across from her, not angrily, more like she was explaining something to him. She pointed to her arm. It looked like she pantomimed holding a gun against the younger guy's head. Then all three of them started laughing. While they were still laughing, the girl put her right foot on the edge of the seat, pulled up the leg of her jeans and took something out of the side of her boot. She was wearing black lace-up style motorcycle boots that covered her ankle.

She handed the item to the older guy and Lee saw the sudden flash of a blade in the dim light. The girl had just given him a switchblade. The older guy examined it, closed it, gave it back to her and she stuck it back in her boot.

A hot blond in tight black jeans carrying a switchblade in her motorcycle boot, obviously telling some story related to the knife. They all laughed again. He tried to get a better look at her face, but the younger guy was in the way. He realized he really wanted to meet her.

"I know you still have feelings for Blaire," Dee said. "You wouldn't be here getting drunk if you didn't, but I thought…maybe you and me could…you know the way you used to talk to me at the apartment, I thought maybe there was something there…I mean now that Blaire is dating Billy Keikeya."

"You already told me she's dating Billy. You don't need to keep pointing it out to me that she's dating Billy." He was slurring his words now.

He ignored the rest of what she had said. She had obviously mistaken casual conversation for something else. Dee was nice, but he had no interest in her like that. No interest at all. She was too nice, too meek and soft-spoken. Besides it would only be a rebound thing, and everybody knew how most rebound things worked out. It wouldn't be any different to him than sleeping with that Viper pilot on the Triton. It wasn't even worth it to get back at Blaire. He'd just wind up hurting Dee and then he'd have that on his conscience as well.

"I'm not asking for anything but friends with benefits. What do you say, Lee?"

"I say drop it, Dee." He kept his eyes on the girl and the two guys.

The discussion in the booth had turned serious. The older guy was doing the talking. He emphasized a point by tapping his forefinger on the surface of the table. The younger guy and the girl were listening attentively and nodding occasionally. Finally the older guy reached out and shook the girl's hand.

They had been there maybe thirty minutes when they got up and left. The younger guy got out of the booth first, but as the blond slid out, the older guy got up and obscured Lee's view of her. His next view was of her back as the three of them went out the door.

"Do you know them?" Dee asked.

"Know who?"

"The girl and the two guys. You haven't stopped looking at them."

"No."

"You were looking at the blond in the tight jeans, weren't you?"

"You can't blame me for looking at her. I don't think I've ever seen anybody that hot."

Lee signaled the bartender for another drink at the same time he realized he'd hurt Dee's feelings.

"Haven't you had enough?" Dee asked.

He didn't answer her right away. Finally he said, "Look, Dee, it was nice of you to come all the way down here, but I really want to be alone right now. Go find some nice guy like Billy to date. You and me…it's not going to happen."

She slid off the barstool. "I'm not like Blaire. I don't want a nice boy like Billy. Call me when you're sober."

His thoughts were already back on the girl in the tight black jeans. He wondered how he could be so interested in her if he was still that hung up on Blaire. Maybe he was getting drunk for no reason. Maybe it wasn't losing Blaire so much as the fact that he'd failed at something that had gotten to him. Lee Adama…bottom of the class when it came to love. Wasn't that what Zak had implied? Was that what had gotten to him so much?

He decided that he would have to start coming here in case the hot blond ever came back. He might even give up McGee's for this place. He wanted to meet her. One night with her and he would forget Blaire Merric even existed.

The hot blond in the tight black jeans might make even a rational guy like him believe in love at first sight.

She might even be the girl in his dream.

...

Kara and Jared walked the three blocks from Zeno's Tavern to the subway entrance. Jared's contact, nickname or codename, Frogman, had gone in the opposite direction.

"You're officially in the club," Jared said to her.

"What next?"

"Since you're going to be in the field, you'll be notified to do something. It won't be for real; it'll be a test. One day you'll get a real assignment. You're not supposed to know when they stop being tests and start being real. It may be as long as a couple of months before you get a real assignment or it might be in the next couple of weeks."

"Who do these assignments come from?"

"Me, since I'm now responsible for you. I brought you in. Someone else will give them to me and I'll pass them along to you. You screw up or give them any reason to think they can't trust you, and they'll burn us both."

"Burn us? You mean kill us?"

"Probably. That's one way they insure commitment. You bring somebody in, you're putting your own life on the line."

"I'm not going to screw up. So what do you think my first assignment will be?"

"I already know."

"What?"

"We go back to the apartment and play. Frogman's orders."

Kara started laughing and pushed him. "Liar."

Their breath was frosty on the night air as he chased her, laughing, to the steps leading down into the subway. He grabbed her and pulled her against him. Arms around each other they went down the steps.

"There was a guy at the bar tonight who was really checking us out. He looked drunk. I think he was just trying to get a look at you, but you never can tell. You need to be alert for things like that."

"It's the tight black jeans and blond hair," she said. "Gets them every time."

"And the fact that you're so damned beautiful. You didn't notice him?"

"I saw some people sitting at the bar. Which one are you talking about?"

"Some black chick came in and sat down beside him while we were there. It looked like she was trying to pick him up. He was too busy trying to get a look at you to pay much attention to her."

"Oh, yeah, him," Kara said. "He was hot. The whole time Frogman was talking all I was thinking about was frakking the guy at the bar."

Anger flared in Jared's voice. "Why don't we go back and see if he's still there? Is that what you want to do? Maybe you want to go home with him tonight."

"Lords of Kobol, Jared. Take it easy. I'm just screwing with you. I didn't notice anybody at the bar. I was paying attention to Frogman. Isn't that why we were there tonight?"

"You really know how to push my buttons, don't you? You enjoy it too."

"I'm sorry. I was only kidding. You're too serious."

"This is serious stuff. If you're going to do this sort of thing, you're going to have to start being aware of your surroundings all the time."

"Bummer," she said. "That takes the fun out of life. Maybe I'll let you handle that part of it."

She started to use her subway pass to get through the turnstile when Jared stopped her and handed her a token. He had one for himself, too.

"That's another thing. We were never here, tonight."

...

Kara was still waiting for her first test when Jack Fisk called her into his office two days later and asked her if she wanted to start riding shotgun on one of the trucks. There had been another attempted robbery, one of his most reliable drivers was threatening to quit, and he'd finally gotten Cylon approval to add guards and guns with rubber bullets.

"Not if I have to give up riding the bike."

"We do trucks deliveries to the clinics between seven and nine in the morning. One motorcycle rider can cover other deliveries during that time. At least consider taking either the morning shotgun run or the one where we pickup between six and seven in the evening. It'll mean a little more in your paycheck, double if you're able to take both."

Kara thought about it. She owed Fisk. He'd taken a chance on her. Besides, if she moved out and got her own place, the extra pay would come in handy.

"Okay, I'll do it as long as I get to keep riding the bike."

"Good. That's one less guard I have to hire. You'll have to pass a short training course on the guns with the rubber bullets to get certified and get the permit. Half day at a range outside of town. I doubt that will be a problem for you. You can take the bike."

"Sign me up, boss."

Fisk smiled. "You go next Monday morning."

Kara grinned. "You really think you know me, don't you?"

Fisk was still smiling. "Get out of here and back on that bike."

...

The instructor at the gun range spent the first half-hour explaining about the guns and the rubber bullets. He told them that the older style solid rubber bullets had proved almost totally ineffective and had been replaced by a rubber bullet with a hard plastic core.

"I mention this because the newer bullets travel farther and are potentially deadly if they strike the subject in the head. They won't pierce clothing but have been known to pierce bare skin. Let me put it this way, I wouldn't aim for the head unless I thought my life were in danger. Aim for the torso in the chest area. It's the largest area of the body and the one you'll stand a greater chance of hitting. Any questions?"

No one else had any. They moved to the indoor target range which reminded Kara of a series of long, divided bowling alleys with a big computer screen at the end of each alley.

"The target area is like a touch-screen computer," the instructor said. The front screen is made of a tough plastic polymer that will send a signal to the computer screen behind it. It will register the effectiveness of your hits."

Even though the guns didn't make a lot of noise because the charge that fired the rubber bullets was smaller than a conventional bullet, he made them all put on ear protection and plastic glasses.

"The screens are angled to deflect the bullets downward, but we won't take a chance. I can tell you that it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch to get hit with one of these things bouncing off that screen." He looked down at his roster of the eight people in the class. "Carrie Warner. Why don't you go first?"

Kara stepped up and took the rifle. It looked like a conventional assault rifle except that the barrel was shorter. The computer screen flickered and came on. There was the outline of a human torso magnified by the front screen so that it looked life size. Different color areas on the body indicated the effectiveness of the shot. The entire head and neck area was the color of blood. The distance to the target was about sixty feet. She raised the gun, used the sights and fired at the chest. The hit registered several inches to the left of where she had aimed.

"Your sight's a little bit off on this one. Either that or your computer's wrong."

Compensating for the difference, she quickly hit each shoulder, then each knee and finished with one to the head. That's for you, Zarek, she thought. She grinned and handed the gun back to the instructor.

He said, "Come see me if you ever get tired of working for Fisk. We'll mail your certification to him as well as your permit to use the weapon as approved on your job. You can go."

Kara went out into the sunshine, put on her helmet and started the bike. It was a beautiful January day. She had officially added another skill to her resume if she ever needed one. Besides riding a motorcycle, she could kill a computer target with a rubber bullet.

...

Laura met Bill for lunch the day after her budget was restored. She was still feeling so triumphant over her small victory that she was beaming.

"You look awfully happy," Bill said. "Does Colonel Winters have anything to do with it?"

Of all the things that could have made her happy, he had zeroed in on one she would never have thought of.

"Oh, no, Chuck has nothing to do with this."

"So it's Chuck now?"

She smiled. "I call you Bill, not Commander."

"I just hope you and I are better friends than you are with the colonel."

"We are. Much better friends." She smiled mischievously. "Although I am seeing him again Saturday night."

"I wasn't trying to pry."

"Yes, you were. But you're forgiven."

"And John? How are things going with him?"

"I'm not dating John."

"You said you would tell me why you needed his help. Was he able to help you?"

"Yes, he was. He confirmed the very thing we feared during the negotiations. The Cylons are trying to create a human-Cylon hybrid, unsuccessfully at this point, but making progress."

"How could John confirm that?"

"The woman he lives with works in Dr. Baltar's secret lab, the lab that took a large part of my education budget. Money I now have back thanks in a big way to the information John was able to provide for me. That's why I'm happy. I got my education funding back. We can continue to educate the children and train pilots as well."

"I know John is living with someone and that she works in a lab, but he never said exactly what she did. So he betrayed his girlfriend for you?"

"You make that sound so negative...and so personal. He didn't do it for me. He did it because he believes like I do that a hybrid child would be an abomination."

Bill looked out the window of the restaurant. "I doubt he'd have done it for anyone else."

"I think you're wrong."

"I don't. You're playing a dangerous game, Laura, and now you've involved him. I doubt that Dr. Baltar and his Cylon friends will remember you with kindness. You're already on their dradis for your efforts with the refugee camps. You should have let the money go."

"And then what, Bill? Next year when they take more and then more again should I just forget about education on Caprica? Let them take it all? Close our schools? Stop educating our children?"

"Maybe it won't be an issue next year, certainly by the year after next."

"What do you mean?"

"I will talk to you about my plans. I've promised to do that. I just can't do it here."

"When? Where? My office? Yours?"

"When the time is right I'll come to you, privately, and tell you everything. Before then, I won't take the risk. You've put yourself in enough danger as it is. I wish you'd talked to me before you confronted Baltar. I could have helped you."

"I'm not accustomed to asking a man to do my job for me. The education of what's left of humanity's children is my responsibility, Bill, mine, not yours."

His eyes softened. "You still want to better us, don't you? Better humanity?"

"Humanity, yes."

"And yet you didn't hesitate to ask a man to betray his lover to help you. Did it not occur to you that John will have to live with what he's done? He's a good man and you used him, Laura. Don't you find that ironic?"

"I did it for the greater good of all of us."

"Like the terrorists? They think what they're doing is for the greater good as well."

"Are you comparing what I did to what the terrorists are doing? I didn't force John to do anything. He could have told me no. And Baltar really does believe that I guessed the purpose of his work with the Cylons. He has no idea I knew about it before I met him for lunch."

"I'm not comparing you to a terrorist."

"What do you think of them, the terrorists…or the resistance as some people call them?"

"Resistance. Yes, I've heard them called that. You know my official stance. I'm sure it's the same as yours."

"Unofficially, though."

"My concern is that they're going to go too far and bring the wrath of the Cylons down on all of us. That would mess up something that a few of us are working hard to bring about. You aren't mixed up with them, are you?"

"Gods, no…nor will I ever be. I'm an educator, Bill. Violence in any form is abhorrent to me."

"War is unavoidable sometime."

"Coming from a warrior?"

"Coming from a man who's spent his life trying and failing to protect humanity."

"You're being too hard on yourself."

"No, I'm not."

"But you're attempting to do something about that now?"

"I am. And one day you'll know what. I promise you that."

...

When Laura got back to her office she had a message on her private office number from John. He asked for a rain check on their dinner the following evening. He said his schedule had been changed for the next few weeks and that he would be flying nights while they trained a newly-hired pilot. He said he'd be in touch the following week. He apologized a second time and told her how much he looked forward to seeing her again.

She was disappointed but knew he would be as good as his word. The bottle of peach brandy would keep.

On Saturday night Chuck Winters took her to dinner and then to the opening of a new musical production in the theater district, a story of star-crossed lovers that actually had a happy ending. She knew the story of Olliver and Esmari well, had read the trilogy when she was a teenager and had been enthralled by the adventure and especially the romance of the two main characters.

She had heard tickets had been sold out for months and wondered if the colonel planned that far ahead or if he knew someone. Her biggest surprise of the evening came, however, as they went out during intermission to get drinks and she saw Gaius Baltar with D'Anna Biers.

She took Chuck's arm and nudged him toward them.

"Dr. Baltar," she said. "What a surprise. Apparently you don't work all the time."

"Madame Secretary," he sniffed. "I believe you know my good friend D'Anna Biers."

"Indeed I do. I'd like for you both to meet a friend of mine, Colonel Charles Winters. He's head of the military's Academy. Chuck, this is Dr. Gaius Baltar and D'Anna Biers. D'Anna is the reporter who helped me very much a few years ago."

The colonel shook hands with both of them. "I'm an admirer, Ms. Biers. You've done some astonishing work, you and that photographer of yours."

"Thank you, Colonel Winters. I need to come interview you soon, and I'd like to bring my photographer. I've wanted to do a piece for a long time on how our pilot training is going…an honest, in-depth interview I might add. I'd like your assessment of skill levels and commitment of our newest pilots."

"Call me Chuck," he said. "And I'll be glad to speak with you. Just call the Academy. I'll tell my aide to put your call through any time."

Dr. Baltar looked directly at Laura. "The colonel will have to wait. D'Anna is busy right now doing a story on my secret AI project. She's already done her first interview with me and next week she'll be interviewing some of my staff. I'm also going to allow her photographer inside my lab."

"How interesting. Whose idea was the interview, yours or Simon and Natasi's?"

For just a second there was a flicker of emotion in his eyes. She'd guessed right again. He glanced at D'Anna, and a knowing look passed between them. This woman who had done so much for her during the crisis with getting food to the refugees had clearly aligned herself with Baltar. She was an astute and savvy reporter. She couldn't have been taken in by him. That meant only one thing to Laura. D'Anna Biers was a Cylon sympathizer. Could it all have been a setup? Could D'Anna have been that smart? Could she have used Laura and Bill three years earlier to get an inside track with Laura's fellow government officials? Could they have been used to give credibility to a Cylon sympathizer who would now use that credibility to cover up Baltar's real project?

Laura felt dizzy at the thought. She leaned against the colonel's arm.

"Are you all right?" Chuck asked.

"I'm fine. Shouldn't we be returning to our seats?"

"Good evening then, Madame Secretary," Baltar smiled. "Enjoy the rest of the show. I understand the second act is better than the first."

He wasn't just talking about the musical and she knew it.

"I'll call you soon, Chuck," D'Anna said. "And of course I'm going to call you, too, Ms. Roslin. I need to interview you about how well you're educating the Colony's children…since the camps have been shut down."

"Certainly," Laura said automatically. The fact that D'Anna had just used the same words, educating the Colony's children, that she had said to Baltar was not lost on her.

She had to tell Bill. And she had to tell John, too.

She felt so sick that it was not a lie when she told the colonel that she wasn't up to having him in for a drink. Again he kissed her. She returned the kiss automatically.

"Is it me?" He asked. "Or is there somebody else on your mind right now?"

She put her hand on his arm. "Oh, no, Chuck. It's just…concern. Please, be careful if you speak with D'Anna Biers."

"Why? I thought she did you and Bill Adama a big favor. I understand she's the government's favorite reporter."

"She is, but something has happened recently to make me wonder at her…trustworthiness. I can't explain at the moment, but please be careful how much you tell her. Treat her like someone who doesn't have our best interest at heart."

"All right. But I expect an explanation of that someday."

"Someday you'll get one. I promise."

"I'll say goodnight, then."

"Goodnight, Chuck."

Thirty minutes later she was dressed in her nightgown and robe and was curled on the sofa with a drink when she realized that he hadn't mentioned calling her again. She found it didn't upset her at all.

She barely slept that night. The next morning she was up by six o'clock. She made coffee and read the paper. She knew she would have to wait until Monday to talk to Bill. She wouldn't chance calling him at home, and Bill refused to carry a mobile phone. After lunch she dialed John's mobile number. He answered on the second ring.

"Can you talk? It's important," she said.

"Sure. Lissa went into work today. Do you want to do this over the phone?"

"No."

"I was just getting ready to go out for a walk. Would you like to join me?"

They agreed to meet at the south entrance to Caprica Park. Again she put on the jeans and sweatshirt and put her hair in a pony tail. This time she added sunglasses.

The day was beautiful and sunny and cool. He was waiting for her at the park's entrance when she got out of the transport.

As they strolled down one of the paths, she told him everything about meeting Baltar both for lunch and at the theater and about the secondary lab she thought they were setting up to show D'Anna Biers.

"I'm sure that's why Lissa went into work today. She said they were moving some equipment. So you got your education funding back?"

She smiled. "All of it. I'm sure the Cylons will take it from somewhere else. Someone else's budget will suffer. But education on Caprica is safe for the moment."

John smiled. "I wish I could have seen the look on Baltar's face when he you guessed the truth about his project."

"It was almost comical. To be such a genius about science, he's certainly naïve about human nature. But that's not all I have to tell you."

She took a deep breath and told him her suspicions about D'Anna.

When she finished he was silent for a few moments. "Are you sure about her?" He finally asked.

"I can't be a hundred percent sure, but I believe she knows what Baltar is doing and approves."

"So D'Anna Biers is a Cylon sympathizer. Who'd have ever thought? Many of her articles have had a subtle anti-Cylon bias. She hides her loyalties well. But that's the mark of a good spy, isn't it?"

"I threatened Baltar with going to her over his project. I never mentioned her name, but everyone knows about the standoff at the Caprica Airbase and who broke that story. I'm sure Baltar feels like he's neutralized my threat now. In a very real sense he has. I'm also sure his Cylon friends not only approved his interview with D'Anna but probably suggested it as well."

"That figures. If you're right about this, and I trust your instincts, then the Cylons are actually putting one over on him,"

Laura sighed. "You're right. You're absolutely right. If D'Anna is a Cylon sympathizer, then she already knows everything that's going on in that lab. She used me three years ago to help establish her credibility and now she's going to use that credibility to cover what Baltar and the Cylon doctor are really doing. I wanted you to know this, John. For Lissa's sake, too. This has moved into more dangerous territory. If nothing else it shows how desperate they are to keep everything quiet."

"I realize that. We'll have dinner soon. I've just got to get these night flights and a couple of other things behind me. You still okay with that?"

"Of course. One other thing, D'Anna's going to interview Chuck Winters."

"Why?"

"She said she wants to talk to him about pilot training. I just hope Chuck knows when to stop talking because everything she tells him, even off the record, will go straight to the Cylons. You know him better than I do. Will he tell her too much?"

"Chuck Winters is no fool, but D'Anna is very attractive."

"I tried to warn him, but he might have taken it to mean I was jealous."

"You're not?"

"No."

"As soon as he figures that out, it'll break his heart."

"I doubt it. He didn't even mention calling me again."

"You'll hear from him. He's just playing it cool. Once he sets his sights on a beautiful woman, he's persistent. He won't stop until one of two things happens."

"I know what the first one is. What's the other?"

John grinned. "You making it clear to him that the first one won't ever happen. Unless it already has."

She smiled. "Not that it's any of your business, but we're still at the awkward goodnight kiss stage."

"Then you'll hear from him again." John's voice turned teasing. "You kissed him? On the second date?"

"Actually we kissed on our first date."

"We're on our fourth date and you haven't kissed me, yet. My feelings are hurt."

Her voice took on a teasing tone as well, "You've been such a big help to me that I certainly don't want you to leave here with hurt feelings so kiss me."

"What?"

"You heard me. Kiss me."

She saw something in his eyes that she wasn't able to read. The moment stretched. He didn't move.

"I thought so," she said. "You didn't think I'd call your bluff, did you?"

"Are you saying that because you really want me to kiss you or because you think you owe me? That makes a big difference to me."

"What do you think?" She turned one of his favorite phrases back on him.

"I'm not thinking too clearly right now."

She smiled. "Then I guess four's not the magic number, either. I need to get back, John. I brought some work home with me. Enjoy the rest of your walk."

"If you were serious a minute ago, I'm going to shoot myself for not taking you up on it."

"Please don't." Her voice was just as teasing as his had been earlier. "We'll never make it to our fifth date if you do that. You just never know when we're going to get to that magic number. Call me when you're free for dinner. I really do have a gift for you. I think you'll like it." She smiled again. "And you won't have to kiss me for it, either, although I suppose you could say it does involve a kiss."

She smiled thinking of the peach brandy and the drink he had mentioned, Siren's Kiss. She had gotten the last word this time. What was there left for him to say? She turned and walked toward the entrance of the park. She was still smiling. Perhaps the incorrigible flirt had met his match.

...

Jared was waiting for Kara when she got in from work at 7:30 Monday night.

"Let's go for a walk," he said.

"I'm hungry. Let me eat first. I missed lunch today."

"We'll walk down to the deli on the corner. I'll buy dinner tonight."

He gave her a look that said he needed to talk to her without Maggie or Karl around.

"Okay, let's go."

They were barely in the elevator that the landlord had finally gotten fixed when Jared said, "You just had to go and show off at that frakking gun range, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You told the instructor his gun sights were off, which they were, and then you shot his target between the eyes. The target didn't even have frakking eyes. Frogman came to see me today. They've picked you for a mission on Thursday night."

They got off the elevator and neither spoke as an older couple got on.

When they were down the steps and on the sidewalk she asked, "What kind of mission?"

"A mission that's apparently been in the planning stages for a long time and got pushed up for some reason. It's on for Thursday night. They need someone to function as a lookout who's also a sniper. They picked you."

"Meaning?"

"You'll watch from some vantage point while some other operatives perform a mission. You'll have a high-powered weapon with real bullets, night vision scope and goggles. Frogman wants you…us to meet him at Zeno's tomorrow night and he'll explain exactly what you'll do. I don't like this, Kara. I told him you hadn't passed one test, not one frakking test yet, and he said actually you had. That you could hit what you aimed at and right now real marksmen are in short supply. I don't like it."

"What about the instructor?"

"He's got a family and won't do missions like this. Believe me. I've already quizzed Frogman about why they picked you."

"I won't be near the…action or whatever?"

"I don't think so. But you realize you might have to shoot somebody."

"Humans?"

"Maybe. Maybe more than one. Frogman will explain it, but that's what a sniper does. This mission is to be a silent mission. Everybody knows his part going in. Nobody speaks. Hand signals only. Wherever it is I think they have an audio detection system that can hear human voices whispering at nearly half a mile, speaking aloud at over a mile. What they do is voice print everybody who works there. The system then ignores them. Anyone else sets off bells and whistles. It's really expensive, but whatever is being guarded is apparently worth it."

"What are the other operatives going to do? What will I be covering them for?"

"I think they're going to blow the place up."

Kara felt his words in her gut. What had she gotten herself into?

They reached the deli and Kara told Jared to turn around. They walked back to the apartment. She wasn't hungry anymore.

...

The next night Frogman was waiting for them outside Zeno's. They walked four blocks to his car. He handed blindfolds to them, told them to get in the back seat, put the blindfolds on and lie down.

Jared asked her if she wanted to make out. She knew he wasn't serious. He was trying to help her relax, but she was still so up-tight that she almost punched him. She could hear Frogman laughing as he pulled away from the curb.

Frogman drove for over twenty minutes. When he stopped and told them to take off the blindfolds and get out, Kara had no idea where they were. His car was parked inside a building that looked like a small warehouse or maybe a former garage. The light from a streetlamp came though a dusty, grime-streaked window.

"Follow me," Frogman said.

They went over to some wooden stairs against the brick wall and up to the second floor. He used a key to open the metal door at the top of the stairs. They went down a narrow hallway. Frogman tapped seven times on another metal door, two short taps followed by two seconds of silence and then two more taps, two seconds and then three taps.

There was the sound of the door being unlocked and several bolts scraping. A crack appeared and whoever was inside saw Frogman. They were allowed into the room. The two windows were covered with thick, black cardboard that was taped securely around all the edges. A large table took up half of the room. Several assault-style rifles were propped against the far wall. Kara felt certain they weren't loaded with rubber bullets.

A tall heavy-set man stood on the other side of the table. He didn't lower the automatic pistol he was holding until they were all in the room and the door locked behind them. The man who let them in was the only other person in the room. She didn't know what she had expected, but both men were average looking guys, like she had seen leaving construction sites and factories.

Frogman made the introductions. "Sassy and Harley," he indicated her and Jared. "Scarecrow and Reno," he pointed to the taller guy on the other side of the table and then the guy at the door.

No one said hello. They all just nodded at each other. Scarecrow said, "Kind of young, isn't she?"

"She can hit what she aims at," Frogman said. "That's what counts. Now explain the op to them."

"What's the boy's part?" Scarecrow asked.

"He'll poke holes in the op if there are any. He's smarter than all the rest of us put together."

Reno did most of the talking after that. The target was a research complex north of the city, one lab in particular that had to be taken out. The other operatives would be briefed separately. They would all meet for the first time on the night of the mission. All would be wearing black clothing, black ski masks and night-vision goggles. No one would speak.

The lab complex did indeed have the new audio detection system. They would communicate with hand signals and do their parts in silence. She was shown a set of photographs of the place and told to memorize them. On the night of the mission, she would be given a high-powered rifle with a long-distance scope. Her job was to cover the ingress and egress of the two operatives who would plant explosives that would blow up the lab.

"What's in the lab?" She asked.

"Don't know. Don't care," Scarecrow said. "Someone above us has made the decision that it's to be taken out. They wouldn't have done that without good reason. That's all we need to know."

"Will there be people inside?"

"Not our concern," Scarecrow said. He looked at Frogman. "I thought you said she was okay with this."

"I am," Kara answered quickly. "I'm just curious."

"Don't be," Scarecrow said. "The less we know the better."

"Study these photographs," Reno said. "You'll be at a vantage point on the hill above the back of the lab. You'll have a clear line of sight to the fire exit where our guys will go in. You've got one job. If anyone, guard, or anyone else comes around the corner of that building while our guys are visible, you'll take them out. Our guys will both be carrying weapons, but they're going to have their own jobs to do. You'll be their main protection while they're on the outside of that lab. Do you understand that?"

"I understand," she said. "How does this involve Cylons?"

"It's a Cylon lab," Frogman said. "That's all you need to know."

"The fence with the razor-wire around the complex," Jared asked. "Is it electric?"

"Not yet. They're working on that. That's one of the reasons we have to go now," Frogman said. "That and they're installing security cameras everywhere. According to our inside source, nothing's operational yet but it will be by next week. A couple of weeks ago somebody jumped the gun on this op and got himself killed. Now they're expecting us. They're beefing up their security."

"Why don't they just guard the place with centurions?" Kara asked.

"Why not put a flashing neon sign outside that says Cylon Lab?" Reno asked sarcastically. "The point is to hide their involvement, not announce it to the world."

"Interior security system?" Jared asked.

"Not yet. They're working on that, too. They have installed key card access, but somebody has obtained a master key card that will allow our guys through all the right doors."

"How many operatives going in?" Jared asked.

"Two. One knows the layout of the lab, exactly which room to target to do the most damage, the other one is the explosives expert."

"What are the phases of the moons that night?" Jared asked.

"Quarter full for Thyone," Reno said indicating the larger of Caprica's two moons. "Elara will have already set by one a.m. It's not the best, but it could have been a lot worse. Moonlight's not going to matter down at the building. There's five big security lights along the back fence. That's why our guys will be so visible while they're cutting the fence and until they get in the building and when they're leaving. Those lights are almost as bright as daylight."

Kara was listening to them but at the same time she was intently studying all the photographs Reno had handed her.

"How far away will I be?" She asked.

"About two hundred yards. The vantage point in the woods above the lab has already been checked out. The rifle has a powerful scope and a bipod stand. You'll be lying on the ground. With luck, you won't have to do anything."

"I don't get a chance to test fire the rifle first?"

Frogman said. "Somebody else will have done that for you. It'll work."

"That's a long way," Jared said, "almost an eighth of a mile."

"It's the best we can do. She has to be above the fence with a clear line of sight. Weather should be good tomorrow night. No wind."

"I can do it," Kara said with more bravado than she felt. "No sweat."

"What kind of timer on the explosives?" Jared asked.

"That will be up to the explosives guy. He may not make that decision until they're inside."

Jared said. "The minute that lab blows those guys had better be outside the fence if not before then. If the guards haven't already been alerted, all Hades will break loose the minute those explosives go off."

"She only has to cover our guys until they get back into the woods behind the lab. Then she can go. If they're not out of the building when it blows, she can leave then. There won't be any egress to cover."

"What do I do with the rifle?"

"Leave it. We'll recover it later if we can. If you don't have to fire it, then we hope nobody will realize it's up there. The other part of your job is not getting caught."

Reno pushed a set of aerial photographs of the lab and surrounding woods over to her. They had obviously been taken recently because the trees were bare, but the quality wasn't the best, definitely not high-resolution satellite or anything that sophisticated…an amateur working from a low-flying plane or helicopter with a good digital camera. Reno pointed out a small dirt road to her.

"If you were going to the front entrance of the lab, you'd stay on the I-6. It's ten minutes outside the city, but you've got to get up behind the lab and that takes a more circuitous route. Memorize these directions. Come in on this dirt road. Turn off your headlights, use the night-vision goggles. Then take this track through the woods. It's been marked by three rocks at the road that will fluoresce in the goggles. You'll have to leave your car on the dirt road. It's an access road for a mobile phone tower farther up in the hills. There shouldn't be any traffic on it."

"I'll be on a motorcycle," Kara said. "A black one. It's quiet, too."

For the first time she saw the hint of a smile on Reno's face. "Even better. Leave it just off the road on the track. It's barely more than a path. You'll meet up with the other two guys here," he showed her a small clearing in the trees marked with a red 'x'. "It's approximately half a mile from the road. They will go down to the lab here, you set up over here." He pointed to other marks on the photograph. "Study these photos well. Memorize everything. You can't take any of this with you. You'll need to be at the rendezvous point at midnight. The mission is set for one a.m. It's our understanding there should be no one in the lab by then. If there is, then that's too bad for them."

They gave her half an hour with the photos. She studied everything including a sheet of paper with crudely drawn hand signals that they should all use. You, me, listen, look, stop, go, freeze, enemy, vehicle, I understand, I don't understand, crouch or drop. There were several dozen of them. She concentrated on the ones she might need to use or someone might use to her.

By the time she and Jared were once again blindfolded and lying on the back seat in Frogman's car, her brain was buzzing with the amount of information she'd just had to memorize.

She started to wonder if she and Jared had done the right thing getting involved with these people. If she knew what they were going to blow up, it might make a difference. The mission was two nights away.

Frogman let them out near Zeno's.

"Do you want to go in and get a beer?" Jared asked her.

"Not tonight."

"I don't blame you. I'm sorry I got you into this, Kara."

"You didn't get me into it. I volunteered."

"I never dreamed they'd pull you in this fast or for something this serious."

She shrugged. "I just hope whatever we're destroying is worth it."

"It is," Jared answered.

"You know? How? What?"

"As soon as Reno said it was a lab, I figured it out. I hack around a lot on some government email servers. When I was working at the camp, I got everybody's account and password. Nobody's bothered to change them since them. I have my own accounts set up so it doesn't matter if they change them now or not. I have a program that filters through certain people's emails looking for certain words. One of the email accounts I monitor is a guy named Simon. He's the Cylon doctor who works at the lab. Hybrid is one of the words that keeps popping up in his emails to another Cylon. They think their emails are encrypted, but I cracked that a long time ago."

"Hybrid? Meaning?"

"Think about it, Kara. What would that word mean to Cylons? Maybe the word half-breed has more meaning to you."

The realization of what he was saying hit her. "You mean they're doing something in that lab with humans and Cylons…they're making…half-breed babies or something?"

"They're trying to."

"This mission is so worth it. Whatever I can do to stop that is totally worth it."

"You will be careful, won't you? If something happened to you, I couldn't live with it. I wouldn't…"

She took his hand as they walked toward the subway entrance. "Nothing's going to happen to me."

"Promise?"

"Promise."