The planning session continued as the hours wore on.
    "We're both on a hovercyle, while we're above it I'll play out my line," Phoenix suggested, "get down to a window, open it with my glass cutter and slip in."
    "My advice is wait until after I've dropped through the roof, because that way the alarms will already be going off and I'm sure that those windows have heat sensors on them." Lucky.
    "I gotta disagree with that," Reilly said. "If he can actually get in, your distraction is going to be more useful for the getting her out phase. If we set the alarms off before hand, they might just have somebody run in and shoot her."
    "They show a regrettable tendency to leave bodies behind," Scott admitted.
    "I think we can assume one thing up front," he went on. "Scott, if you're comfortable with this, there's a job that you should probably do: find and take out the self-destruct device."
    "I was planning on using the municipal records to send myself in through the water and sewage tunnels. There will be a self-destruct device, probably attached to the generator."
    "Do you want to do that before Phoenix goes in with his glass cutter?" Lucky asked.
    "We should do this as simultaneously as possible."
    That meant close coordination. A discussion of communications equipment ensued. Scott was not a problem, of course, but the issue of how to stay in touch while leaving hands free was. Eventually they decided that Lucky and Phoenix would wear headsets. Albert, still weak after his efforts of the previous day and unsuited to this sort of effort in any case, would not be going. The phones could be set to vibrate rather than ring, which would eliminate the noise issue.
    They were probably keeping Needle below ground, in one of the three sublevels. The second sublevel, Scott seemed certain, while the generator and the main self-destruct setup would be below. Lucky pointed out that there would probably be secondary destruct devices, to which the others agreed; it fit the WCL way of doing things.
    Eventually, a plan was hashed out. Scott would sneak in through the tunnels, deactivate the self-destruct and then explore from below. Lucky and Phoenix would take the hovercycles and one of Chandler's don't-notice-this-space candles over the building; where the latter would sneak in from above and the former wait for a signal call, at which time she would simply drop from as high as she dared and create as much damage as possible on her way through. If she didn't get a signal within an hour, she would drop down and start breaking things anyway. On the way she would throw her stick to sever the incoming power lines.
    "I guess our only chance is to get you guys in and out of there as quickly as possible," Lucky summed up. They would have some time, they all agreed; although the League had shown every willingness to blow up facilities and kill personnel wherever it seemed necessary, they would probably not hit the button as soon as an alarm flashed, but would rather try and capture the intruders.
    There was also the issue of backup. The PITS guys in Rhode Island were entirely willing to extend them the favor of a helicopter team which would stay in the area along with Reilly; if they didn't hear anything in four hours, they would assume that the whole team had been taken captive and call in the big guns in the form of the Host. Lucky also made a point of calling Trent to let him know what they were planning to do, just for additional security. If they all disappeared, someone would know—hopefully in time to do something about it.
    Phoenix stocked up on concussion grenades and other goodies, Lucky brought her knife and gun, Scott took one of Phoenix's flashlights as an emergency food source, and they headed off to rendezvous with the PITS chopper on the way to Poughkeepsie; it would be dark by the time they got there. Hoping there would be four of them on the way back.

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