"Missing, presumed dead," sighed Phoenix Talon.
    "Eaten by sharks, what a way to go." Sparky shook his head. Everyone else turned and looked at him skeptically.
    "He's young," J.T. shrugged in excuse.
    "You've gotta give him points for style; many people use a smoke screen," Scott observed. "Instead he used several hundred ton of shark."
    Said sharks, no longer controlled, eventually calmed down and swam away. The cops came around and picked up the day's second catch of Blood Boards.
    "World of pain, I told 'em," Phoenix Talon sighed with a shake of his head. "They're gonna go back to the house, and they're gonna get to go to the showers. I hope they don't drop the soap."
    I gave him a puzzled look and shrugged. Phoenix Talon is beyond me a lot of the time.
    Then the fireworks started. So we hung around with the Windjammers and watched them for a while. Had a drink and looked at their trophy collection (impressive as all get out) and the mysterious Indian Ocean artifacts. It was a good end to the day. Oh, and Paul picked a name. From now on he will be known as Thunderbolt.

July 5, 1987 (Sunday)

As it turned out, that wasn't quite the end of the day; there was a message waiting from Mr. Jenkins of Agglomerated MegaPublishing.
    "Just really curious to see where you guys stand, you know. Give me a call back, I'd love to hear from you."
    This was the first time we'd heard from them in a while, so we figured we might as well have a meeting and try to hash out a group response. Newton jumped up on the table, as usual, and got shooed away while Phoenix Talon explained the background for Thunderbolt. He and Scott came down in favor of working with AMP. Phoenix Talon continues to believe that the company had something to do with his treatment at the hands of the Toy Man. And I just don't like the idea, although Scott pointed out that it would probably annoy the World Crime League no end if I did it, and that the final product for the show they're planning probably won't look all that much like me, since I do worry about the potential fate of my sisters if I spend too much time on TV. For one thing they would probably cast someone a little taller, he suggested. And rounder, Talon added. I'm not sure. Maybe I'll change my mind later, but I'm going to hold off for a while and see how things look.
    After the meeting broke up I did a little more research on my new project, got some names and other background information. Of course, since this information is readily available, it's probably worthless, but it gives me something to do. Then, as long as I was thinking about it, I went looking for Albert.
    "As our resident expert on all things mesmerical...."
    "Yes? I'm glad to see that you're finally making use of the resources at hand," he condescended.
    "We try to let you alone to work on your project. But I was wondering, since you probably know more about this whole memory transfer thing than any of the rest of us does at this point in time, in order to do a more complete thing than what Javelin is doing, can you guess what that would require by way of equipment and time?" Those missing hours in Poughkeepsie haunt me at times.
    "Hm." He tapped his cane on the floor thoughtfully. "There are some things that would definitely be needed. I assume that you mean in the sense that you were...? It would involve chemical coding of the direct neurological tissue. They would have to have samples of it, of the tissue in question."
    "Brain tissue?"
    "Yes. And direct modifications to the chemicals they're using to directly incorporate the DNA patterns in the sequencing of the brain tissue."
    "So this would take a fair amount of time?"
    "Oh yes."
    "Basically, I'm wondering what they could have done while I was unconscious in Poughkeepsie, as far as maybe moving stuff into Tempest. She's scary enough, I hate to think about her ripping people open from the inside." Given what he said, maybe I needn't worry. Even in the state I was in, I think I'd have noticed if they'd taken a chunk of my brain.
    He arched an eyebrow. "A distinct problem. I will have to think about this." Which is as close as Albert gets to admitting that he's not sure about something. "If you'll excuse me." He limped away.

[Aside: Phoenix Talon]

    Later on, I got a call from Reilly.
    "Just wondering how the new guy's breaking in."
    "Seems okay so far," I told him. "They're in the other room, bonding. He did pretty well."
    "Y'know, I worry."
    "I don't blame you. We're keeping an eye on him, after last time."
    "We've got the people you pulled in yesterday in a couple of holding cells, the Blood Boards are automatically going back in for parole violation. The two guys, Double Bass and," he chuckled, "Licorice Stick, there...."
    "Oh, yes. Them."
    "Apparently there's a law firm filing briefs in their defense."
    "Oh?"
    "I figured you'd want to know about it. No one's paying an awful lot of attention to Count Bastard at this point, maybe he didn't buy an insurance policy or he expects he's gonna be able to break out or something."
    "Interesting. Which firm would that be?"
    "Wall, Stone, Craft, and Shelley."
    "Okay...." Looks like 1-800-HENCHMEN is looking out for its pawns. "We're gonna have to—"
    "—Look into these people, I think," he finished.
    "Yeah, I think their client list would probably be fascinating."
    "Pity about that lawyer-client privilege stuff."
    "Yeah, well. We'll find some way."
    "I don't want to hear about you breaking the law," he said a bit sharply
    I gave the phone a shocked look. "Reilly, remember who you're talking to!" Despite my recently-discovered, um, flexibility in certain situations, I have no inclination to make a habit of illegality.
    "Yup, I remember who your teammates are, too."
    "I will make it very clear to them."
    Reilly sighed, his tone serious. "It would be much easier for me to put an endless amount of faith in the law-abidingness of your organization were it not for the fact that one of your members is a trained ninja and another one has two really, really ex-cons on his payroll."
    "They're reformed," I said feebly. I hope.

[Aside: Scott]

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