Author's Note:This chapter, and the following chapters, will operate in parallel with my story The Fusion Ultimatum and events will cross-over between the two stories.

Saturday 16th April
Afternoon

Safehouse F

I felt lonely.

They had all gone flying off across the Atlantic Ocean and the Safehouse felt empty without the usual laughter and the sounds of sparring. I missed Stephanie and her crude sense of humour. I missed Megan's foul mouth, too, not to mention her funny antics. I missed Dave and Mindy; they made me feel safe. I also hated the fact that I had been sidelined while they all faced mortal danger.

I was fully aware of why I had been left behind; I had an important task ahead of me. That task was currently rubbing her arm where I had just kicked her.

"You've got to move quicker – much quicker. I need to see more nightmare and less wet dream..."

Lauren did not like that comment, nor the analogy, and her face darkened; I could see the anger – good, good...

"Good! Use your aggressive feelings, girl. Let the hate flow through you. Feel the anger, feel the hate..."

Lauren's expression changed and she smirked at me imitation.

"Darth Sidious, you ain't," she growled.

"They ain't half bad, are they?"

Curtis and Tommy leant on the steel rail and gazed down at the fight beneath them.

"Tommy, don't tell Megan this, but I love to watch girls fight, especially ones with nice boobs..."

"I have to agree with you... I just hope Stephanie gets tits like your Megan..."

"You fancy her, don't you?"

Tommy's blush answered the question.

"She's like ten, Tommy, and you are twelve..."

"So what; she'll get boobs in time and the other shit. I like her character, the way she talks – maybe it's 'cause she's English, I don't know. I just think she's an awesome girl . . . not to mention that she is able to stand up to me when we spar."

An hour later

"So, Lauren, what do you want your combat suit to look like?" Tommy asked.

"It has to be cool!"

"We need just a bit more info..." Curtis laughed.

"What colours do you like?" I asked.

"I like purple..."

"Taken..."

"I know that, Tommy..."

"How about something like this?"

I passed over a few pieces of material to Lauren.

"What pattern is that – tiger stripes?"

"No – that would be urban camouflage. Which colours do you like?"

"That one and that one..."

"Teal and dark grey? Nice choices... Next, the firearms..."

Arrayed before me was a stunning selection of pistols.

They varied from small ones to enormous ones, with various sizes in between. SD finished laying them out and a relieved Curtis was able to flex his aching arms after he had lugged two dozen pistols up from the armoury.

"Why couldn't we have just done this in the armoury?" He asked.

"We could have..." SD replied. "You should have mentioned that earlier..."

Curtis scowled.

"Okay..." SD replied. "No offence, Lauren, but you have small hands, so we are probably best going with a compact Glock or maybe a SIG . . . a Beretta might be good too..."

"That one looks awesome..."

"No way; that's a .45 – way too big..."

"Why is it hear then?"

"I was just jerking Curtis' chain!"

"You're taking the fuckers back to the armoury, SD!" Curtis growled.

Sunday 17th April
The following morning

Glen Oak Drive

"I've never been on a motorcycle before..."

"You'll love it, Lauren..."

The BMW motorcycle that had been provided by the CIA was long gone, but I loved motorcycles so much that I had obtained a new one – this time, though, it was not a BMW it was a KTM 1190 Adventure R in blue metallic... I had found Lauren a helmet and some leathers so that we could go for a ride.

"Keep a tight grip around my waist – I'm gonna go easy and ride slowly so that you can see how I manoeuvre the machine."

"Okay..."

The thirteen-year-old girl was nervous, but I could easily understand why. I could remember my own first time on a motorcycle – I had been about eight and I was on a small scrambler with my Dad watching... It was only a dim memory, buried under years of Urban Predator shit, but I could still see it... It had been about a month before I had been taken – snap out of it, Saoirse!

I drove down the street, slowly and then turned gently into the next road on the left.

Two hours later

The Farm

I climbed off the KTM and turned to help Lauren off the back.

She pulled off her helmet and I laughed, I couldn't help it – the girl was grinning like there was no tomorrow. I had taken her for a high-speed run up the I-94 towards The Farm. The giggles that had emanated over the comms had been disconcerting, but I was glad that the girl had enjoyed herself.

"Hi, girls!"

I waved at Jack Bay as he walked over to us. I had been introduced to the man only the week before. He was a very senior cop, which had concerned me, but Mindy had told me that he knew all about Fusion and that he supported us. I had never been to The Farm, so it was a first for me and Lauren, both.

Jack took us into the kitchen first and he gave us both some Coke.

"This thing is a pain to carry..."

Lauren dumped the SIG Sauer P230 Compact pistol onto the kitchen side. Jack laughed.

"I'm getting her used to carrying a concealed weapon – she only got it yesterday afternoon," I explained.

"It may save your life, one day, young lady; if you're gonna be a vigilante," Jack cautioned.

I noticed Lauren go a little pale; the thirteen-year-old girl was still struggling to cope with the changes in her life. She had never even handled a gun before a couple of weeks ago and now she was being trained to kill.

"Can she shoot it?"

"She's managed to get a few bullets in the vague direction of the target..." I teased.

"They all hit the target I'll have you know!" Lauren retorted indignantly.

An hour later

"Stop laughing!"

I couldn't see a thing; my visor was covered in mud and for some reason it felt really hot inside the helmet. SD was laughing her head off and it was embarrassing, to say the least. I knew that my butt would be sticking up in the air and that was probably what SD was laughing at...

"I'm sorry, Lauren, but that was one awesome dive you took..."

"Not funny – just help me up, would ya?"

I felt a pair of hands on my waist and I was pulled back onto my knees. I lifted my head and then I screamed as a whole load of water cascaded over me – but at least I could see! I saw Jack standing a few feet away with a large empty bucket.

"Thanks, Jack!"

"Get back on that motorcycle, young lady – keep on learnin'," Jack advised.

I grinned and climbed back onto the now rather muddy Honda that SD was holding ready from me. I could do it, I could ride that motorcycle; I was not going to let Mindy down, not after everything that she and Dave had done for me.

Two days later
Tuesday 19th April
Early morning

West Ridge

"What's that?"

"An alarm, honey, go back to sleep."

Marty gazed at the clock – two AM! He swung his legs around and onto the floor before he stood up, a little shakily – he had only been in bed two hours. I rubbed his tired eyes and picked up his tablet. After a few minutes' perusal he grimaced.

"We're being hacked – no more than usual, just the usual DoS attacks – but something looks hinky about one particular attack; it's forceful and is doing more than just being annoying..."

"In English, geek!" A tired Kim groaned.

"Somebody is making a concerted effort to get in; they know they have something – but probably not what – I need to find out if it's dangerous."

"I'll put the coffee on."

Whoever was hacking us; they weren't doing too much to cover their trail, which could mean a trap, or just a stupid hacker...

I was able to track down their IP address relatively easily. It had taken a while and it had involved several leaps around the country, but we had finally returned to Chicago. To be honest, I was more than a little surprised by the turn of events; I had expected to find the source of the hack in some disreputable Chinese University for example.

The hacking was quite complex, which indicated somebody highly skilled and possibly even a nation state which was why Chicago was not even on my list for potential sources of the hack.

That night

Lincolnwood

After we had gathered the team at the Safehouse, and left Matty in some very capable hands, we had then left the Safehouse in Hound.

As we approached the address, I began to get a strange feeling – something irked me. We were in a very good neighbourhood, with large houses and expensive cars parked on the driveways. I detected that my wife was a little unnerved too as we pulled up and stopped a couple of dozen yards from the target property. It was a large house, with five bedrooms, according to the schematics. Added information that I had obtained showed that there was also an advanced computer capability within the property as there were a pair of fibre data connections to the property, both of high bandwidth.

There were lights on downstairs in the house and also in two of the upstairs rooms. In the driveway were a pair of SUVs; a large Jeep and a BMW X3. Whomever lived there had money. According to the records held by Chicago and various other computer systems, Mr and Mrs Dade were both well paid members of the IT community and they both worked in the centre of Chicago as IT Managers. They had two teenage children, a boy and a girl.

They did not exactly fit the expected form of the 'hackers' that we were looking for...

..._...

Heat scans of the property had showed two people downstairs in the living room, but five in the rearmost bedroom, upstairs.

"You guys getting this?" Hawk asked.

"Yeah, Hawk – we have your image..." Trojan replied from the Safehouse.

"Sure that's the place?" Foxtail enquired from beside Trojan.

"That's where the IP address is registered..." I reminded them. "Murphy, Fellowes – you guys ready?"

"Aren't we always?" Murphy replied.

"Finished your doughnuts?" Hawk chuckled.

"Funny, coming from you!" Fellowes shot back good-naturedly.

"I'd like to go on record as saying that I did not stuff my face with doughnuts when on patrol..."

"Let's focus – Murphy, Fellowes; time for you two to do your thing."

As we watched, the unmarked CPD SUV pulled up outside the target property and we moved Hound up a dozen yards behind. Murphy and Fellowes climbed out and headed towards the front door of the house while Hawk and I headed around the rear of the property.

..._...

At the rear of the property was a large grassed backyard. The back of the building had a pair of balconies on the second floor – one of which had five people in the room beyond it.

"Let's move, my precious..."

"Move it, Geek!"

We both climbed up to the balcony and took up position on either side of the windows. There was a single door into the bedroom. We paused and listened.

We could hear voices – kids' voices...