Been a busy six months. I guess we could have done worse. We told him about Holly Shapiro, too, just so he'll know to keep away from her and to keep the property damage to a minimum. I'd be a happy woman if I never had to see her face again.
    And of course there's Toy Man 2, Phoenix Talon's current project, assuming that it wasn't actually Toy Man 1 sporting a new look and quite an attitude.
    "He seems like a rather prickly sort all told," I observed.
    "He does. Although he was glad to see I got out of the deathtrap, which isn't really a normal supervillain response...."
    "It means you're a more worthwhile opponent for him to beat next time, I suppose." I've been talking to Larry and Felix, trying to get a handle on how these people think. "For the same reason you don't actually kill the Blood Boards when you take them out." Unlike some missing team members I could name. "There wouldn't be any sport in it."
    "And I'd get arrested," Phoenix Talon pointed out.
    Well, there was that. I for one don't want to be on that side of a courtroom ever again.

July 4, 1987 (Saturday)

Maybe I should start reading my horoscope. It would help to have some kind of heads-up when a day like this one is on the way. Then again, if I'd read an accurate prediction, I wouldn't have believed it.
    The first notable occurrence was a call on the videophone. Yes, we have one, and no, it's never been used before. Most of the people we talk to don't have them, so it's been gathering a fair amount of dust over the past few months. Scott stuck a pseudopod upstairs to find me.
    "The FBI's on the phone," he informed me.
    "Be right there." My paranoia has been relatively quiescent lately; this brought it back to life with a vengeance, but I gathered up my coffee and headed down. "Yes, what can I do for you?" I asked the graying gentleman on the screen.
    "I'm Agent Schwandt," he introduced himself. "Something just came up on a flag, that I'm supposed to contact you?"
    "Yes?"
    "I just wanted to let you know that a bunch of declassified materials from the Poughkeepsie case have been purchased by a variety of corporations."
    "Really." For obvious reasons, I've been doing my best to keep an eye on the continuing fallout from that event. This is the first significant item that's come up.
    "Yeah, I can send over the list of bidders on things for you, but the primary one, most of it got picked up by a group called the Caduceus Project out in Boston."
    "Really."
    "There was a flag on the file that said you were to be informed if this came up, so...."
    "Great. Thank you very much. Could you send that over?"
    "It's on its way."
    "Thanks."
    That determined how I was going to spend my morning, anyway. I did some preliminary checking on the company—biomed research firm, very new, planning their IPO, nothing obviously fishy. I looked over the list of the stuff they'd bought and wished I knew more about biology. Did a little bit of research and found that there was a reason they'd declassified the stuff; it's pretty well up there on the cutting edge, but not really variant tech, and therefore safe for public consumption.
    Assuming that no one on the inside has gone and had some imaginative fun with the list vs. reality, of course.
    They've bought and are in the process of renovating the space once owned by Yesterday's Tomorrows, which Fimbulwinter had destroyed. Presumably they got it cheap.
    I am, possibly, being too paranoid. Why would the WCL buy its own material? Why on earth would they set up a front company in Boston, right under our noses? Maybe it's a decoy.
    Get information, then find a theory that fits the facts, I remind myself. Not the other way around. I decided to visit their new building.

[Aside: Phoenix Talon]

    I wandered down the sidewalk across the street from the new Caduceus Project headquarters. They had a sign up, and a couple of cars in the parking lot despite the holiday. Workers were bringing in desks and bookcases. Their opening is schedule for a week or so from now.
    I looked at the open door and shrugged. If this turned out to be something more than it appeared on the outside, we were probably going to end up breaking into it at some point; may as well get a look at the layout.

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