Garek slid into the seat at the public terminal café and logged in. Then typed in a familiar messaging address.

G: Just checking in. Any news?

He waited, watching the blinking cursor. After fifteen minutes, a reply came.

P: Good to hear from you. And funny you should mention that. We've been talking, and were wondering if you'd like to meet.

Garek wasn't surprised. They'd been dropping hints last conversation. Depends on how far we have to travel.

P: Oh, not far at all. That made him nervous. We aren't going to discuss details over net, but we're going to leave a note where you can find it. How does tonight sound?

G: That's not a lot of time to prepare.

P: That's by design, boss. We're careful. We've *been* careful. You're a risk to us, and we don't want to end up on the wrong end of a problem. Hope you understand.

Garek stared at the screen. Did he understand? He was hit with flashbacks of a farmhouse. An appreciative faunus serving him and Toller an amazing home cooked meal. A drugged meal. Betrayal. Toller bleeding out in front of him.

He started to shake.

P: You there, boss?

G: I think I need time to think. That's too soon.

There was another long pause.

P: Look boss, I realize this is scary. I'm going to put my cards on the table for you. You found something and you ended up connecting with us because we know about it, too. If we were working with *them*, we'd have told them while you were out in the middle of nowhere and easily handled. Instead, we've had your back. My partner has been scrubbing records of your searches and movements for you. He wiped that terminal, remember? We're helping you cover your tracks, and we've got some items and info that can help you some more.

That was… that was better.

G: Can you prove that's true?

Another pause.

P: I doubt you have the tech background to verify what I'm saying, hell I don't either. Sorry. But we're satisfied that you're legitimate, and you *are* careful. We're helping you to be *more* careful. We're suggesting a meeting in an open location, just to have a quick chat. Improve communications.

Open location. He wouldn't be led anywhere remote. Wouldn't accept it. No food or drinks either.

He took a deep breath and typed out Okay.

P: Great. There's a certain spot where you saw a couple take a break from the hustle and bustle last night. Nice looking folks, too. Bet the guy works out. Anyway, if you swing by there around 8:00 tonight, there will be a note taped to the bottom of the seat on the right side, facing it. That'll tell you where to go next.

Garek felt his blood freeze.

They knew exactly where he was last night.

They knew what he looked like, and Selene.

They have been… of course they have been. They said as much. They were tracking him. He'd as much as told them he'd be in Argus. And they knew… he'd bet they knew everything about him. And if he believed them, they were scrubbing his movement history.

If they were going to kill him, or something, what would be the point of cloak and dagger, if they could track him like that? They could just have him mugged on the street. Hell, they could nail him right here.

Unless Selene was the target.

No. No. Because he wasn't going to bring her to the meeting.

Unless he was the planned hostage.

He shook his head. He was doing that thing again. The thing that had messed him up back in Vale before Selene returned. Too paranoid. He would end up giggling in a closet. I'm not going to do that.

Another deep inhale and exhale.

G: Fine. I'll do it.

He relayed the situation to Selene when he got back to the hotel. To his surprise, she didn't argue to go with him.

"Good girl."

"Woman," she objected, shaking her head. "Do you know, Garek, that I can see that bench from our window?"

He grunted glancing that direction. "But that's just the… what did that movie call it? The dead drop. The instructions might send me on some wild goose chase. I might not be back until late."

"I understand. If it appears dangerous, do not follow the instructions." She stepped into him, grasping at his clothes. "You must promise me, Garek."

"I promise. But I don't think it will. He knew I was nervous. I don't think he wants to spook me."

They ate dinner in the room a few hours later, and Garek left the room an hour before the instructed meeting time, fully armed. They hadn't said he couldn't bring weapons, and no one would blink at an armed Huntsman, even in a city.

When he crossed the street to the park, he looked back at the hotel, and he could see Selene in the window. She gave him a small wave, which he returned. He steadied his nerves, and turned down the nearby jogging path.

Only a few minutes later, he made a final turn through the trees and saw the bench. There was a young man sitting on the left side, the side he didn't care about, reading a scroll. Garek looked around as he slowly approached. There a few other walkers and joggers. Some couples. One family walking the other direction. He approached and eased down onto the other side of the bench with a grunt.

The other man ignored him.

Good.

His hand slid under the edge of the bench, and found a small slip of paper, which he pulled loose and palmed. He leaned over to his left, and carefully opened the small note to see what his next instructions would be.

The guy next to you is unarmed, unless you count having an overactive imagination as a lethal weapon. Feel free to say hi to him.

That was it. Garek read it twice before he finally looked to his right. The guy was engrossed in his scroll still. He looked him over more carefully, trying not to actually stare. Young. Probably the same age as me. Bit on the chunky side. Unruly hair. A Pumpkin Pete's earring in his left ear.

Huh. Okay… "Uhh, nice evening?"

The guy didn't look up. Just grunted. "Yep. Not too busy. Evenings are still mild." He smirked at the scroll. "Come here often?"

Garek paused. Was he coming across as trying to pick up the guy? He was early. Maybe it wasn't the right guy at all? "Errr… no not exactly. First time visiting Argus in years."

"It's a nice city. Name's Pete, by the way." The man looked at him for the first time. "It's a pleasure to finally get to talk to you in person."

Garek was both relieved and nervous. On the one hand, it appears this was the spot for the meet, and 'Pete' was the guy. And Selene was watching him right now. On the other hand… here it is.

The guy didn't look dangerous. Garek still made sure his aura was pushed to his back. He could guard his front.

"I believe you have a watcher," Pete said matter-of-factly, nodding toward the hotel. "I've got one too. It's okay if you wave to reassure her." Pete looked upward and to the right, and waved to someone else in that direction.

And there it is. He'd already confirmed they knew Selene existed. And now he confirmed they knew where she was. Garek nodded, looked in the direction of the hotel, and slowly raised his hand and waved to her. He saw a silhouetted figure wave back, and the window did not self-destruct in a fiery explosion, taking out half the hotel. Good. That's good. He shuddered and then relaxed a fraction. "So, what now?" He said as he put his hand down.

"That depends. What did the note actually say?" Garek passed it over. "BA, you are an asshole." Pete muttered. "And you're early by like an hour. I lost 20 lien on that too. Fuck." Garek laughed at that. Okay yeah, this didn't feel too bad. "Sorry, like the original netpage said, you call the professionals, and then you call us."

"And can I ask who 'us' is?

"Just a band of concerned citizens who have been fucked over by a certain egotistical bastard in the past, and then there's me who was a stupid teenager and luckily got paranoid before I got dead. Welcome to the party." He leaned back, and gave Garek an appraising look for the first time. "How the hell does a Huntsman of all things get wrapped up in this?"

"That's… complicated?"

Pete snorted. "Surprise, surprise."

Garek finally took his hand off the hilt of Cats Paw, and he saw Pete relax further. "What do you want from me? You've helped me out. What are you looking for?"

"Good questions. Short term, we wanted to meet with you. Feel you out. Reassure you that we're not trying to hurt you. That's what's happening right now." He turned more toward Garek and leaned forward, "I hope you'll understand that we're in more danger here than you are. If we had to move operational locations, it would set us back years and make life much more difficult for us. You can apparently pull up stakes any time." Garek grunted in assent. "So, we've done as much homework on you as we can, to make sure you aren't some sort of honey trap. But there are some holes that bother us. Willing to answer a few questions?"

"Depends on the question. I've got some of my own."

"Fair. How the hell are you getting around so fast?"

Great, right to one he couldn't answer honestly. "Well… my fiancé has private transport."

Pete paused, and Garek got the idea he was listening to someone. "Aright, that answers that one I guess. And would I be right in assuming you met your fiancé around a year ago somewhere along the cost of North Vale?"

Garek paused, and slowly nodded. That seemed a safe confirmation.

"And if I guessed, and we don't have any information on this, she was your original source for looking into the Watts Conspiracy?"

"Indirectly, yeah. My turn. What do you think this Watts Conspiracy is?"

Pete made a sour face. "We call them the DAWists. Dee Ayy Double-U -ists. We don't know who they are, or what their broader motive is, but they seem really, really touchy about anything to do with one Doctor Arthur Watts. There's snoopers on the net, scripts and worms that work their way into Scroll updates. Database Crawlers. You name it, we've found it in the wild. And fucking all of it is tuned toward two things. Automatically removing public reference to his existence, and apparently neutralizing anyone who starts pulling threads without being very very fucking careful. Beyond that, we don't know."

"Damn. Yeah… that… that sounds about right."

"You don't seem surprised, and you're not calling me full of shit."

"I have reasons to believe you."

"I know, the scripts and the Scroll files."

"No… I have more reason to believe you than that. That bastard is a dangerous, amoral genius."

"Was."

"Is."

Pete's eyes widened and he slowly straightened up. Garek thought that he could hear a faint sound of someone demanding something coming from near Pete's right ear. "The fuck did you just say?"

"I said the guy is-"

"That. That. Garek, Arthur Watts is dead. We've got an extremely trusted eyewitness. Autopsy results. He died five years ago… we don't know who is carrying on his-"

"No. No. I have highly trusted visual confirmation of my own that Arthur Watts is alive. Why the fuck do you think I'm so terrified?" He looked at Pete's hands, which were gripping the bench so hard his knuckles were white. "Gods… you didn't know."

"Fuck. Fuck. That… that explains a lot. Oh fuck." Pete was hyperventilating. "Sorry I'm trying not to pass out here." He looked up and to the right. "Yeah, yeah BA I know."

"BA?"

"My overwatch. He has a very personal reason to be really pissed off right now." He quickly added, "Not at you!" The young man took several gulps of air. "I need a drink. Gods, I need two drinks. Just a second." He dragged his hands from the bench, and rubbed his face roughly. They were shaking. There was a continuing burst of tinny noise from somewhere near Pete's right ear. "Guys, shut the fuck up for a minute, please?"

They sat there for a few minutes, Pete staring off into space. "Sorry about that. That was a shock. The whole team was screaming in my ear at once."

"I felt the same way when you messaged me that first time."

"No shit."

Garek looked him up and down. "Well… I'm thoroughly convinced you are not agents of Watts preparing to kill me."

Pete burst out laughing, startling a jogger who had been passing by. They waited for them to move on.

"Godsdammit." Pete threw up his hands. "Consensus?" He was looking into the distance again. "Alright." He glanced at Garek. "I'm going to reach into my messenger bag over here and grab a couple pieces of tech. They'll allow you to communicate safely with us from here out."

Garek nodded, and Pete retrieved two Scrolls, each in a custom hardbacked case. He handed them over. "The Scrolls themselves aren't really special, other than containing a custom script in the firmware that wipes them and fries several bits of hardware if they are removed from their case. So… uh... don't take them out of the case unless that's what you want to happen." He pointed to the case itself. "The case is actually a shield for the stock internal antenna, basically blocking it from doing its job. Instead, the case has it's own external antenna and some complicated bullshit I don't understand that spoofs its location from the CCT but piggybacks on that network." He waved his hand. "The result is that we're extremely confident that it not only can't be hacked or intercepted, but no one can track your location with it either."

"That's… impressive."

"It's secure. We spent better part of two years putting this together. We think we lost the first contact we ever got because they were using standard Scroll tech and drew too much attention to themselves. At least that's the working theory. Not like we could go to Vacuo and verify." He twitched. "Sorry, I'm to ask whether I just freaked you out."

Garek leaned against the bench and gave Pete a long look. "Pete, I am fully aware of how dangerous these people are, and I've faced worse. Seems to me this is more a risk for you than it is for me. If you are comfortable with it, that's good enough for me."

Pete was silent again, and Garek was sure he was listening to his cohorts. "That's the third time this evening you've shocked at least one of us."

"Story of my life."

"Alright next question. What are your next plans? And can we help each other out? We have… certain assets and skills, and modest funding." He nodded to the Scrolls. "But what we don't have right now is mobility of boots on the ground. You're a Huntsman with surprising mobility. Are you willing to be our legs?"

Garek set the Scrolls down beside him. Glanced back toward the hotel and hummed to himself, considering how much to say. "To answer your first question, my plan was to go to Atlas," He noted a look of triumph on Pete's face, "and try to contact Dr. Polendina. I'm not sure yet what I hoped to accomplish there. I was thinking about pumping him for information about Watts-"

"We can help you with that. We know almost as much as Polendina does about Watts." He frowned, "At least everything up until his apparently false death five years ago. We can fill you in extensively on his background, provide you with details about what the DAWists have been up to since." Garek's started to interrupt. "Might have to retire that term, because now it sounds like it might just be Watts still."

"So, I don't need to meet with Dr. Polendina at all?"

"Oh, you should still do that, but with an eye toward putting a bug in his ear about the possibility of Watts still being alive!" Pete was leaning forward again. He paused to see if anyone objected, and continued. "See, that's what I'm talking about. Just that right there could cause a huge butterfly effect. None of our current team can get close to him, for different reasons. And an anonymous tip wouldn't work. But we can help you do it. And it has to be verbal, not electronic, because if we can't warn him before he starts poking around, then he might have an accident. We've seen it before." He finished that last quietly.

"Alright. It's what I was planning anyway, so I can't see that this changes anything on my end."

Pete shook his head. "This is amazing. Even my paranoia has shut the hell up, and my team says I'm a pain in the ass." He got an almost predatory look on his face. "Maybe you can settle a little bet we've got going on."

"Oh?"

"And I apologize up front. You have to understand, we are alive because we are careful. We've been digging into everything we can about you, to convince ourselves you aren't bait. We probably know more than you would have been comfortable with, a few hours ago."

Garek laughed. "I'm starting to understand that. What was the question?"

"Is it possible…" He glanced into the distance, "Yes, I know that wasn't part of the planned questions BA, I'm asking anyway." His eyes bored back into Garek's. "True or false, your girlfriend is a highborn lady who was being hidden away by an overprotective dad, before you rescued her from his clutches." The words came out rapidly.

Garek blinked. When Pete had started the sentence, he'd almost panicked. But that was… oh what the hell. "Pretty much. Mom instead of dad."

There was a burst of noise from Pete's ear again, and it probably hurt like a bitch, but all Pete could do was grin. "Welcome, Garek Grae, to The Lone Huntsmen." Pete held out his hand.

Across the park on a rooftop, BA cursed as he watched through binoculars as Garek and Pete shook hands. "Godsdammit. 200 lien. Godsdammit, Pete." He didn't notice the dozen or so small nevermore chicks perched on the roof nearby.

Selene had been standing at the window for two hours straight, watching her lover and the other man talk animatedly. She'd also cracked the window. Had anyone been paying close attention, they might have noticed a series of small, black, winged creatures with bony plates and glowing red eyes cycle to the window and then fly off. Some had flown around the duo in the park, at a discrete distance, to notify her or cause a scene if anyone seemed to be approaching from behind them. That proved unnecessary.

A second group of nevermore had flown a broader pattern, trying to see if anyone were, much like her, observing from further away. One of those had found someone lurking on a roof several blocks to her left, and upon return had described him as best it's little brain could, as a human, dressed in black, with some sort of weapon that by the description was probably a rifle. The nevermore chicks were not intelligent enough to provide much more detail than that. She told it to return there with its brothers, and if the man pointed that thing at Garek, to distract him.

As the discussion had continued, especially after Garek had waved the first time, she became less stressed. At last, they both stood, shook hands again, and Garek gave a wave as he turned back toward the hotel. She saw the other man do the same in the direction of the supposed lurker.

"Very well. It was merely a safety precaution, much like mine." She waited until Garek disappeared back into the hotel, and dismissed the nevermore chicks.

Garek received a warm welcome upon returning to the room.

A very warm welcome indeed.

The next day, they had their first video call with The Lone Huntsmen, a name that made Garek cringe. He wondered if a name change was up for debate, but wasn't about to insult them right out of the box.

Pete started by explaining his nickname. "Nickname because I loved that stupid cereal as a kid." Pete had been into conspiracy theories since he was a young teen, and by some miracle managed not to get himself killed pulling on the wrong threads. Among his insane beliefs was that the Grimm were actually alien shapeshifters, Remnant was possibly mounted on the back of a giant space turtle, the SDC had technology to create Dust from seawater but was suppressing it, and finally, that a shadowy cabal controlled Remnant and was plotting a global apocalypse.

Garek kept his mouth shut on how close that last one hit home… for now.

The second team member was a couple decades older than Garek, with prematurely graying hair, and called himself Broken Arrow or just BA (Bee Ay). He was apparently in charge of security and had Atlas Specialist training. He explained that his career had been ruined because he was blamed for Watts' death in what was he called the Paladin Incident. He also revealed that he still had some contacts that owed him a favor or two in the Atlas military, though he had to be very careful with using them.

The third was their tech and communications expert, She called herself "guhnew", spelled GNU. Like Broken Arrow, she believed she had suffered at the hands of Watts. She was previously an Argus CCT lead engineer, and was framed and fired for a massive Argus CCT malfunction. One that she believes Watts was behind. She understood the net inside and out, and had been waging a quiet electronic war of cat and mouse with what they had called the DAWists.

Garek introduced Selene on the call, and the group made it clear they were aware of her issues with crowds, and would be assisting in securing them a spot on a cargo transport to Mantle rather than public transport, which had less pleasant accommodations but would be much less crowded. They also agreed they would later supply another four of the custom cases which Garek could distribute as needed.

"Use your best judgment, but don't freak out if one is lost. The case rewrites the firmware on any Scroll you hook into it, and we can burn it remotely if we see it's not being used as intended. And it will be worthless to analyze if they dare try to deconstruct it. We did our homework here. Several years of tinkering thanks to GNU."

They compared notes, Selene recording anything relevant in her special time as they spoke.

After they hung up, he and Selene just sat and smiled at each other for what felt like an hour.

"This has promise, Garek."

"Damn right. I feel… I feel like I actually have a team again for the first time in six years. It's not just you tiptoeing and me flailing around in the dark. We're part of a team, with specialization and skills." He took a deep breath. "I still feel like we are in 'figure out what the big picture is' mode. But it's a start. It's a real start." He looked at Selene. "Come'ere, you. Let's celebrate!"

Laughing, she snapped the tome shut, and eased herself into his lap.