A/N: I'm so sorry... I was hoping to be better at regular updates and I failed again! Maybe I shouldn't promise anything as clearly I'm not good at keeping those promises!

Chapter 16, part 1.

"I don't like this," Carter repeated, shaking her head. She'd been doing it a lot during the briefing—and it'd been a long one. Alice not only had to describe all the events, but also motivate her decision to go ahead with the mission even though it required transferring to an unknown planet, with no backup and no idea what they were getting into.

"We knew the New Light would be risky," Alice replied patiently. "There had to be a point at which we would get separated from the B Team, that was inevitable."

The general sighed heavily. "And what stops this merc from killing you both once he gets what he wants from you?"

Alice smiled crookedly; she was ready for that question. "Three things: firstly, if he does kill us and it turns out that we've missed something and his ship is still not working as well as he'd like, he'd be getting rid of the only experts he knows. He's a gross shithead, but he's not stupid."

Carter cocked her eyebrows at the profanity, but nodded at the younger officer to go on.

"Secondly, we're not helpless, ma'am. He's got two people in his crew and I very much doubt he'd like anyone else to find out his little secret—I mean, the ship's not going anywhere anytime soon, so secrecy is his only way to hide it from those who'd like to relieve him from it. We've got our Zats and we've got our training—we're not quite as vulnerable as he thinks." She didn't add: or as you think we are. She understood that it was difficult for Carter to send out people into harm's way without backup—it was a bane of any higher-rank officer's life. But that was their job, and Alice, though concerned for Rodriguez's safety, was not going to back out just because it was a bit dangerous. "And, thirdly—if we could borrow a BC-304, it could pull us out if it gets really dicey."

Carter frowned deeply. "I thought you didn't know the address of that planet."

"Well, no, he didn't let us see it—but why do you think we stayed there for so long after nightfall?" Alice shrugged.

The older woman's face smoothed out. "You calculated the location of the planet based on the stars and their position on the night sky!"

"Yes, ma'am." Alice nodded with a little proud smile. "We needed to stay for at least six hours so I could have at least a couple reference points, and then it was easy to determine where we were."

"Didn't look easy," Rodriguez mumbled under his breath and Alice smirked. She tried to explain the calculations to him as they waited in the night, but he had a little trouble grasping the concepts. Alice didn't blame him—he was an engineer and not an astronomer or astrophysicist.

She pulled a sheet of paper from her pocket and handed it to Carter. "It's not very precise, mind you, but it should be enough for a battlecruiser to find it."

The general nodded pensively. "And you did that without so much as consulting a star chart, not to mention a computer."

Alice shrugged. "I've got a good memory." And not a lot to do at nights when sleep wouldn't come; staring at the Milky Way map, trying to memorize it, was only one of the things she did to drown out the darkness. It had the added bonus of being potentially useful—like it had proven to be now.

"I'll say." Carter nodded. "While that's really impressive, Major, I have to wonder how do you plan to alert a battlecruiser that you need rescuing if something happens? As you said, the signal from your radio will not reach the orbit—and there's also the problem that it takes a few seconds to prepare it for broadcasting."

"Well, I've thought about it—we had a bit of time on the planet." She snickered. "I think I can enhance the lockets to include an emergency broadcast. It's already rigged to receive a signal from a paired radio, it shouldn't be too hard to add an option to send one, as well. I'll have to think about how to trigger it—maybe one long squeeze of the photograph on the mic size would do it, or maybe something else, I don't know yet. I'll have to see—we'll want to make it as quick and discreet as possible, of course." Alice paused for a moment, looking at the ceiling, her mind already churning—but then she shook her head and leveled her gaze with Carter's again. "And as for the range—all we need is the BC-304 to beam the B Team down, really. They can hide in the woods near the ship, and if they receive our signal they can come in with a rescue—or, more likely, simply inform the battlecruiser to beam us all up immediately."

Carter cocked her head to the side, mulled it over for a short moment, and then sighed. "Alright, fine. I see that you have thought it through, Major. You may proceed with the mission, on the condition that you can be ready with the emergency broadcast capability before you go off."

"Yes, ma'am," Alice replied with a big smile. "Thank you."

It was a working weekend for Alice, and she was grateful for that, for it let her focus on something other than her personal dark cloud. Aside from trying—and eventually succeeding—to figure out how to address the emergency broadcast capability question, she had to gather all the necessary equipment, and it was not easy; none of it could look like it came from Earth. Thankfully, in anticipation of such need, they'd picked up a lot of stuff while roaming the merchant planets and smuggling hubs, so only a few items remained. After Alice catalogued her needs, Carter authorized the use of a couple SG teams to go look for them, while the major concentrated on the radios and making sure that all the stuff she'd gathered worked properly. She also asked for a couple hours of Carter's time—the general was the only person who's ever seen a Hebridian ion drive on her own eyes, and she was the foremost expert on that type of technology anyway. What was supposed to be a two-hours briefing devolved into a four-hours discussion, but Carter didn't seem put off by that; in fact, it looked like she enjoyed getting back into the engineering saddle for a little while. She told Alice in secret that she was in the middle of screening candidates for XO and hoped to do a lot more sciency stuff once she had some help with the administrative side of command.

The concentrated efforts of the two SG teams and Alice paid off, and by Monday morning she and Rodriguez were ready to go back to Krone. The Hammond was already positioned on the orbit of the planet (which, they determined by cross-checking its position with their database, was P26-007, a planet once inhabited by Jaffa who got wiped out by the Ori), but since they agreed to meet at the tavern as previous, Alice and Rodriguez had to spend their morning there, sipping beer, eating snacks and listening to gossip. It wasn't until midday that Yrgen, one of Krone's crewmen, came to collect them and bring them back to the ship.

Krone was sitting in the pilot's seat as they reached the bridge. He threw Alice a little predatory smile as she entered, which she decided to ignore, though it made her uncomfortable.

"So, you're ready to get your hands dirty now?" He asked in a mocking tone.

Alice tossed her hair back and twisted it into a tight ponytail, tied off with a ribbon. "Yep. Let's get this party started."

Rodriguez threw two large canvas bags he had been carrying onto the floor.

"Damn, Levi, careful with this!" She chastised him good-naturedly and began rummaging in the bags, pulling out a few pieces of equipment—most importantly a hand-held computer connected to a scanner, which would work much like her trusted tablet with a multimeter pointer—except this one was of Ori design, one of the few items not related to weaponry left over in the Milky Way after their invasion's ultimate failure. It cost them a small fortune, but it was absolutely necessary for Alice to be able to do any sort of work on the ship's systems.

"That looks neat. What is it?" Krone asked, watching her settle in the other seat, pull off the outer casing of the front console, and start hooking up the scanner to one of the crystals inside.

"Something that you surely don't know how to use," she replied arrogantly, leaning back to check the screen as it came to life and started displaying data.

He snorted. "You know, despite your yummy exterior, you're not an easy person to like, Nova Ray. You could be nicer to me."

"Are you paying me to be nice to you, Krone?" She asked without lifting her head.

"Being nice never hurt anybody." He sounded mocking again.

"I know, you should try it sometime," she deadpanned and got a short bark of laughter in response.

"Fair point," he agreed willingly. "Well, at least this accords me a great opportunity to watch you work… I hope you have to bend a lot," he added lecherously.

She sighed. "Are you gonna continue this running commentary or will you let me work?"

"What, you can't multitask?" He teased.

She finally raised her head to look at him, scowling. "You know I can recommend a couple of great brothels where you can rent someone to look at and talk to as much as you want. They get paid by the hour, though, and I don't, so will you shut your mouth so I can work?!"

He smirked. "Oh, what I wouldn't do to see you in one of those outfits!"

She rolled her eyes. "You need to get your priorities straight."

He opened his mouth to say something more, but Rodriguez interrupted him.

"Give it a rest, man," he warned, his voice casually menacing. "Let her work. The faster she's done, the faster you can get your ship flying again."

Krone didn't look too happy at being berated by someone he considered a kid, but he did shut up finally and Alice was able to focus on the readouts on her little Ori tablet. Everything there was written in an old Ancient dialect—somewhat different than what she was used to on Atlantis—but after over three years dealing with that language, it wasn't that hard to understand.

After thoroughly checking the front consoles, Alice moved to the engine room, with Rodriguez logging their equipment along and Krone trailing behind her. His two crewmen were nowhere to be found, so Alice assumed they went somewhere else while Krone continued to keep an eye on Nova and Levi.

It took her almost two hours to complete a full systems diagnostic. There was only residual energy to be found anywhere in the ship, but it was enough to run a few tests and identify the faults—plural. As she had predicted, the main problem was a physical flaw in the ion drive, but there were other, smaller issues that would've affected different systems' performance.

She stood up and stretched, hearing little satisfying cracks in her neck. She had been hunched over for a long time and it felt good to finally straighten out her bones and muscles.

"Are you done?" Krone asked, jumping down from where he was sitting on top of a metal container.

"For now," she confirmed, throwing a look at Rodriguez; the boy stood nearby, leaning on the wall, but his casual stance couldn't fool her: he was ready to go at a moment's notice. "I found your problem and, unfortunately, it's the drive itself, which means I'm gonna have to open the engine chamber and crawl inside with my tools to fix it."

He spread his arms with a satisfied expression on his face. "That's perfect—go for it!"

"Not that fast." She lifted her hand in a hold on gesture. "We agreed on payment in installments, after finding what's wrong and then after I fix it, so we'll take two hundred now, and another two-fifty after the job's done."

"Aw, that's just impractical," Krone replied with a sly smile. "You're not leaving now anyway, so why not take everything after you finish?"

Alice cocked her eyebrow. "Because that's not our deal. Listen, if you don't produce the Naquadah now, I'll assume you don't have that much and it's gonna get unpleasant really fast."

He smirked. "And we wouldn't want that, now, would we?" He shook his head, but then relented. "Fine. Stay here."

He was gone only a couple of minutes, and when he came back, he had an apparently very heavy canvas bag with him. He threw it on the ground unceremoniously.

"Here's your two hundred pounds of weapons-grade Naquadah."

"Levi?" Alice said to Rodriguez and the kid pulled a device from one of his vast pockets—it looked like a metal hook with a little display on top. He secured the straps of the bag to it and pulled it up until the bag was off the ground.

"A hundred and ninety-eight," he read off the number. "Within the margin of error." And then he put away the handy scale and dragged the Naquadah to rest next to one of the bags containing their equipment.

"Good." Alice nodded and started rummaging in one of the bags again. "Now, in order for the ship to fly again, you're gonna need two things, Krone: me to fix the leakage in the engine chamber, and you to get more fuel once that's done. It's all gone by now, so without it, you won't be able to move an inch."

"Easy, liquid nitrogen costs peanuts," he agreed, watching her pull out a hazmat suit, complete with a breathing mask, hat, gloves and shoes. "What is that for?"

"I told you, I'm gonna have to literally crawl inside the engine chamber," she answered distractedly.

"So? Liquid nitrogen is not that dangerous."

"No, but radiation and radioactive particles are." She extricated a toolbox and put it down next to the suit. "The ion drive works by emitting harmful ionizing radiation—gamma rays—to activate neutrons in the liquid nitrogen to produce energy. That means that at any given time, that chamber is flooded with residual radiation and radioactive particles." She pulled out an intricate-looking cube the size of a football and put it with the rest of the stuff. "The system is equipped with safety protocols that should be able to decontaminate the area where I'm gonna be working, but I don't fully trust it, so I'm gonna be as safe as I can."

Krone's expression betrayed his confusion, but he nodded as if it all made sense to him.

"You all might want to clear out of the ship until I confirm it's safe," Alice added with a smirk. "I don't expect any radiation to leak through, but if you wanna be able to have children in the future, you might want to keep out just in case."

"The fuck?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Levi will tell you. Now, go!"

Krone frowned, unsure of what to do—he clearly didn't fancy the idea of leaving her alone in his ship, but, despite his lack of understanding, her warnings must have made an impact, because he finally nodded and left, followed by Rodriguez.

Alice first picked up the intricate cube—a Naquadah generator of original Orbanian design that one of the SG teams she's sent out with her list of shopping got for free directly from Orban; the population of the planet had been decimated by the Ori and the SGC was helping them out with some vital resources to build it back up. She hooked it up to the engine control module, which was already connected to her Ori computer, and initiated the drive total shut-down and decontamination procedure. While this was ongoing, she pulled on the hazmat suit—hoping that it wasn't really necessary, but she figured it was better safe than sorry—and grabbed the toolbox. When the computer beeped, announcing the success of the decontamination, she headed towards the heavy double door that separated the engine chamber from the rest of the ship.

The chamber was big, but most of it was taken up by the drive itself, and so she had to literally crawl inside to be able to start unscrewing casings and slowly making her way towards the couple places where age and radiation had weakened them enough to fall apart. The truth was, the entire module would need to be replaced sometime soon, but she had neither the materials, nor the patience to do it. She figured, for her purpose, just making the ship fly again would be enough; the most important part was to impress Krone enough that he'd share the news with other mercs. In her case, exposure was more important than getting paid—although, of course, to maintain her cover, she couldn't dismiss that part, either.

It took her nearly three hours to find and mend the leaking parts, and two more to carefully replace everything she had had to take apart to get there. Finally, she got out of the chamber, closed the door, and then removed the suit. Leaving the gloves on, she put it into a special bag that was made of similar material as the suit itself, then chucked the toolbox inside as well, and finally dropped the gloves in and zipped it closed. This was far from a proper decontamination protocol, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances. Finally, she went back to her computer, checked the radiation readings on the ship's in-built Geiger counters, and, satisfied, began a background scan that would inform her if the problem was, in fact, now fixed.

Leaving it running, she made her way out of the ship and waved at the little group of men that sat on a felled log a few yards away, Yrgen and Doost now accompanying Krone and Rodriguez. They came to her at a jogtrot.

"All done?" Krone asked eagerly.

Alice nodded, stepping back inside and leading the way to the engine room. "Almost. Just checking if all's well now, but I don't expect any other issues with the leaking fuel—at least until the next section of the drive's inner casing gives way."

They were still in the corridor, so when he grabbed her hand, making her stop and twist to look at him, Rodriguez was too far to react. She threw him a look, because he instantly had his hand on the Zat.

"What do you mean? You didn't fix it all?!" Krone seethed, suddenly angry.

She jerked her hand out of his grasp. "I fixed the problem, but this is an old ship. The metal and Naquadah composite that the internal casing is made of is deteriorating under radiation—this is a normal process. At some point, you gotta either replace it all with a new unit, or you're gonna start having leaks in other places," she explained calmly. "That is something I can't help you with—or at least, not alone and without expensive replacement parts. But, I had a look at the existing casing and I think you have a good ten years before you get another leak." She shrugged, turned around and started walking towards the engine room again.

"I expected more of you," he said challengingly, entering behind her. The two others and Rodriguez filed in after him.

Alice whipped around, allowing her indignation to show on her face. "You hired me to fix the problem, I fixed the problem!" She hissed. "I am smarter than any other tech guy you've ever worked with, but I'm not magic."

He smirked and winked at her, regaining his countenance. It was clear that he only felt confident when he could demean or provoke her; her scientific competence rattled him. "You're so cute when you're angry, baby."

Alice shook her head, exasperated, but then decided to let it go. Instead, she went back to her computer and checked the progress. The scan was 90% done and so far detected no leaks.

"It's almost finished," she told him, not looking up. "Another minute or so to be sure. Then you just need to fill it up with fuel and off you go." She paused for a beat, and then added nonchalantly: "Of course, if you wanted to have more than fifty percent shield strength or a decent effective communication range, there's a few more things that would need to be done."

"What?" His face contorted with rage once more. He was going from gross playfulness to full-on fury so fast it was almost impressive. "You were supposed to fix it!"

"I was supposed to make it fly again," she clarified coolly. "And I did." She lifted her computer a little; the screen was showing 100% now, and no more leaks. "But I told you, anything else I'd find and we'd renegotiate."

He continued to scowl at her angrily, but then his expression slowly turned to calculating. "Fine, then. Stay and fix it and there's another hundred pounds of Naquadah for you in this."

Alice laughed out loud. "Are you fucking kidding me, man?" She shook her head. "Three hundred and not a pound less. That's non-negotiable." Seeing his face scrunch again, she added: "If you don't like it, find someone else to fix it for you." And then she smiled arrogantly. "And that's just to make it work as designed. I am sure I could actually boost your shields by at least fifteen percent—if you're prepared to make it worth my while."

He exchanged a look with his companions. "You have one big ego, girlie. One day it's gonna cost you."

"Maybe," Alice agreed calmly. "But I survived a rebellion and its brutal suppression that claimed the life of my father when I was just ten years old. I've survived the war with the Goa'uld, and the Replicators, and the Ori. I've dealt with greedy and cruel men all my life, too, and I'm not actually sure if they weren't the worst of the lot. I'm still here, and for once, I'm not alone—so bring it. I know my worth, and you know it, too, so don't give me that bullshit. You wanna use my services, I'm happy to provide—for the right price."

He narrowed down his eyes to little slits, glowering at her, but didn't say anything, apparently mulling it over.

She shrugged. "Listen, Krone. I've been working here for hours, and I'm tired. I wanna go home and get some rest. So how about you pay me for the job done, put some fuel into your ship and take her for a spin—see how she's doing. If you think that's sufficient for you, that's fine, and we don't ever need to see each other again. But if you decide that you want my services after all and you're prepared to pay for what they're worth, you know how to find me."

He glared at her for a moment, but then nodded. "Fine. Doost, go get the second installment."

"You sure about it, boss?" The man asked, looking from Krone to Alice and back again.

"Just do it."

They waited in silence until Doost came back, dragging another apparently very heavy bag with him. They watched Rodriguez weigh it with his handy little scale.

"Two hundred and fifty one," he announced. "Within the margin of error."

"Great." Alice sent the mercenaries a tight smile. "Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen. We'll take our leave now, and you have a think about what we've talked about."

"You're a fucking crazy woman," Krone opined as Alice began packing the remainder of her equipment and Rodriguez lifted the two bags full of Naquadah onto his shoulders, gaining appreciative glances from Doost and Yrgen—it wasn't a small feat. "But I like it. You have a fire in you—it might kill you someday, but till then… I'll be available if you change your mind about the two of us." And he winked at her suggestively.

She rolled her eyes, picking up the bags with equipment—burdened with the Naquadah as he was, Rodriguez couldn't carry that as well now—and she led the way out of the ship and into the forest, towards the Gate, feeling the eyes of Krone and his men on her until they disappeared among the trees.

"I was skeptical about this whole mission, but I have to say, Alice, I'm really impressed with how well it's going," Carter said, leaning back in her chair. They were alone in the conference room, the briefing over; the general had asked Alice to stay behind. "You really seem to have a knack for undercover work."

Alice nodded pensively. "It's surprisingly easy. And even a little liberating." She saw Carter raise her eyebrows, so she added: "It's like a vacation from myself. For a little while, I get to be someone else—someone who isn't quite as concerned about rules and conventions as I normally am."

"That's an interesting insight." The older woman cocked her head to the side, her face thoughtful. "Why do you think that is?"

Alice didn't feel like it would be a good idea to share with her Commanding Officer just how screwed up she was at the moment, and how relieved she felt when she got to be Nova instead of Alice for a while, so she just shrugged.

Carter shook her head, looking a bit exasperated at Alice's reticence, though it was really nothing new. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you're doing a great job."

"Thank you, ma'am." Alice smiled. "But I should add, Rodriguez is pulling his own weight, too—he has exceeded all my expectations so far."

"Well, he was one of the best in his year at the Academy—but I agree, he is doing very well, too. That's partially thanks to you—you've prepared him well. Overall, excellent work, Major."

Alice nodded, her smile turning into a small smirk. She remembered how, when she was still a young lieutenant, such words would cause her to swell with pride—like a little balloon expanding in her chest. Nowadays, she just felt relieved to be on the right track for once; that wasn't to say that the praise wasn't nice, but it didn't seem so life-altering as it used to.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Alright, you should go and get some rest now—no working today." Carter actually wagged her finger at Alice. "You can write up your report tomorrow."

Alice sighed. "Yes, ma'am." She stood up.

"Have a good evening, Alice."

"You too, General." Alice nodded to her CO and left.

In the women's locker room, after taking a shower and changing into civvies, she picked up her purse and phone and checked the messages. There were a few texts from Aaron, Jake and Deanna, as well as a missed call from an unknown number. Probably a telemarketer, she decided, and didn't actually call back until she was on the surface and getting into her car.

"Hello?" A voice responded after a couple rings. It sounded vaguely familiar.

"Hi, I had a call from this number earlier?" Alice replied, without giving her name; if it was a telemarketer, they really didn't need to know it.

"Oh, yes! Major Boyd, this is Aga Foster, thank you for calling me back!"

Alice barely restrained a groan. What could the journalist want with her?

"I didn't expect to be hearing from you again, Aga," she said, putting her on speakerphone and attaching the cell to a hands-free mount in the middle of the dashboard. "How did you even get this number?" It was a new one she'd gotten after Cho had stolen her original phone. She'd since gotten it back, but this new one was better so she didn't switch again.

"I'm good at my job," the journalist replied proudly. "I'm calling because I've just read an interesting interview in the Colorado Springs' Gazette."

"Did you, now." Alice rolled her eyes, sighed and turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life and she had to scramble to turn the volume up on the phone.

"I made a few calls—I know it was you," Aga continued, and then halted, as if waiting for Alice to confirm; but since she got no response, she added: "I have to say I was impressed with your integrity and honesty. It is not often that we get straight answers from people like you."

"People like me?" Alice repeated, pulling onto the Norad Road. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Members of the government or those under orders. The Armed Forces are especially skilled in the art of propaganda."

"Not everyone is out to swindle the public," Alice replied, her tone amused and a little exasperated at the same time.

"Well, clearly you're not. I just want to reiterate that I believe your motives in trying to quash my investigation are pure—I just don't trust the rest of the government, and I think their interest might not be quite so genuine." She paused, and then added with an air of superiority: "I mean I know about the tail your people put on me."

"I don't believe any of my people were putting any tails on anyone," Alice hedged. She knew Carter had asked the NID to discreetly follow Aga, but they could hardly be called her people.

"Well, okay, so maybe they've got orders from above you," Aga agreed easily. "But don't think I didn't notice them. They're there when I leave my house in the morning, and there when I go for lunch, they jump into the subway train after me and walk me home in the evenings… And yesterday, I found a bug in my office phone. A listening device! That's illegal, Major. Unless you want to tell me I'm being investigated under the Patriot Act?"

Alice frowned. She knew the NID had pretty extensive jurisdiction, but she didn't think it included wiretapping journalists.

"I don't know anything about that," she answered truthfully. "But I'm having a hard time believing the government would go to such lengths to tail you. Not to mention that they wouldn't need to place a physical bug in your phone—there are easier ways to do it. These people who you say are following you… what do they look like?"

"I don't know, it's just two blokes in black suits. I've only seen them for a few moments, they hide among the crowd whenever I want to have a closer look," the reporter answered, sounding a little unsure now.

"Aga, if there were any surveillance of your person authorized by the government, they wouldn't be so crude about it. You'd never notice them, they're good at what they do—and they use a lot of tech nowadays," Alice explained seriously, still frowning. "Remember when I told you to be careful because there are bad guys out there, too? I think these might be them."

Aga chuckled, but it was a nervous laugh. "Are you trying to scare me off, now?"

"You know I wouldn't do that," Alice replied gravely. "Have you asked Julia Donovan about her producer?"

"She wouldn't tell me anything."

"Well, he messed with the wrong people and paid for it—with his life." Alice wasn't technically authorized to share this bit with Aga, but she deemed it vague enough to be harmless—but perhaps shocking enough to get the journalist's attention. "We couldn't save him. These people, they're not above using violence to get what they want—or to prevent something they don't want from happening. And they don't want our secret to come out, for very different reasons than us, obviously. Clearly, they have noticed your interest and they're checking you out, maybe even trying to scare you off. Be really, really careful, Aga—you have no idea how dangerous they can be."

There was a bit of silence that followed, during which Alice reached her house and parked in the garage. She switched off the engine and removed the phone from its mount, but she didn't get out.

"You're in earnest?" Aga asked, and she sounded a bit thrown.

"Yes. As much as I want your investigation to fail, I would never stoop to such methods—and neither would the people I work for, I assure you. But we're not the only players in this game, and I really don't want any harm to come to you."

"So what I'm supposed to do? I won't drop the story," she added quickly.

Alice sighed. "I can't tell you that. Doesn't your paper provide private security when a journalist gets into trouble with the wrong people or something?"

"Honestly, I don't even know," Aga admitted. "Never before have I been in a position to even wonder at that."

"Well, if they don't, you might want to think about hiring someone," Alice suggested, though she knew that if it was the Trust, even the best bodyguard wouldn't really help much. "And take other precautions. Firstly, exercise vigilance and change your routines: take different routes home and to the office, switch the hour of your lunch break, just be unpredictable. You might also want to sign up for a self-defense class and get a gun if you don't have one yet…"

"A gun?" There was a bit of amusement in Aga's voice. "I'm a proponent of stricter gun laws…"

"Me too," Alice agreed. "But strict gun laws don't mean no guns at all—if someone has a legitimate fear for their life, and they pass all the background checks and do the proper training, then I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to carry a gun when it could save their life. I'd say, in these circumstances, you definitely fit that description."

Aga didn't reply immediately, but seemed to contemplate Alice's words. "I'll think about it," she finally said. "Thank you for your warning. Though I'm still not sure if it's not the government after all. But if it isn't—perhaps I could turn the tables on them, help unmask them…"

"Don't!" Alice felt a surge of irritation and was unable to hide it from her tone. "I just told you, they're dangerous—if you try to go after them, then they will for sure retaliate. We know because we've seen it happen before."

"If you know so much about them, why won't you shut them down?"

"It's not that easy." Alice sighed. "And trust me when I say it, we've been trying for years. It's like fighting a hydra, we cut off one head and two more spring up somewhere else."

"Who are they? What do they want? If they're really that dangerous and they're after me, I have a right to know, right?"

Alice rolled her eyes. Even now, Aga was fishing for information. "I told you what they want—to stop you from publishing your story. Or at least that's what I think is happening. I can't tell you anything else. And even if I could, you'd just use it to dig deeper, and we can't have that. Aga, I'm not lying to you, or trying to scare you off, I promise—I just don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"That would be convenient for you, though."

"You should know that it's not me," Alice replied, a little offended with the implication.

"I know, I'm sorry." The apology sounded sincere. "Either way, thanks for the warning. I'll let you go now."

"Goodbye, Aga—take care."

"You too, Major."

The connection dropped. Alice shook her head and selected Carter's direct line from the contacts list. She described the conversation shortly and then asked, to make sure:

"It's not the NID tail, is it?"

"No, they're not actually following your journalist friend—their surveillance is all electronic, they are essentially tracking her cell phone. But they're not listening to her conversations—she's right, without a court order, that would be quite illegal. I'm gonna ask Agent Barrett to have a look at her tail, maybe we can pull at that thread to actually get to the Trust, or whoever it is this time."

"Sounds like a good plan, but tell them to be careful—I got the impression that my warning, though taken seriously, didn't entirely discourage her from following that lead herself."

Carter sighed. "Journalists!" She said as if it explained everything, and then added: "Thanks for the update, Major. I'll let you know if I get something from Barrett, though it probably won't be for a few days at the very least."

"Yes, ma'am, thank you."

"Have a good evening, Alice," the general replied and hung up. Alice sighed and finally scrambled out of the car to get inside.