"Okay. So. Increased surveillance on those guys, I haven't had a chance to run those names you got us yet," I told him, trying to think of what we could do about this new problem. "Why don't we go run those now."

[Aside: Scott]

    "We know that it's at least Rue Morgue," Reilly said. "Who has been operating in the city. If it's the same people he had with him, it's Rue Morgue, Jack Ketch—"
    Scott heaved a heavy sigh as the rest of us rolled our eyes. "I hate that son of a bitch."
    "—Ley Lady, as near as we can tell from the descriptions that were given. She's a minor British operative of theirs with the ability to generate telekinetic lines of force when she's in physical contact with something. I have a file on her that Interpol sent over. And Promethean's brother."
    This time I sighed.
    "And we're hoping that Kymrik's not still in the city," Scott added.
    Reilly shrugged. "We don't know. These are just the people who were involved in the attack to rescue Marcus."
    "Right, but we also have the question, there were the folks who were here for the whole Kymrik thing."
    "Right. Which means that Midas and Kymrik could still—but that would be an awful large concentration of their forces, never mind any conventional people. And who knows, maybe this Mort guy actually is a vampire, or something, he certainly is going out of his way to—"
    The phone rang.
    "Revolution," I answered.
    "Hi, this is Stephanie over at K. Robeson. Is Paul there?"
    "Um. Yeah. I don't know that this is really a good time...."
    "Oh, if he's in a meeting or something that's fine, if you could just ask him to...."
    "I'll have him call you, how about that?"
    "I'd really like an opportunity to see him, now that he's back."
    "I'll make sure he calls you," I promised.
    "He talked with me very briefly on the phone, and there hasn't been any groveling at all about the whole not calling for three weeks."
    I glanced at Paul's oblivious face. "I'm not sure you can really expect that." Grovelling? We got kidnapped.
    "Not even a little?" she asked wistfully.
    "You're asking the wrong person," I admitted.
    "I'll call Molly and see what she has to say."
    "Molly would definitely be the person to ask about this kind of thing." Of course, I suspect that was where much of this started.... "I will definitely make sure that he calls you later today."
    "Thank you very much."
    "No problem."
    "You sound tired," she added.
    "I am. It's going to be another long day."
    "I hope things are going well."
    "Thanks." I hung up and told Thunderbolt, "Call Stephanie."
    "She's probably pissed about you and Cait Sith," Talon predicted.
    The phone rang again.
    "Revolution."
    "Hello. Is Paul, Captain Sutton there?" a breathy voice answered.
    "Ye-es, who may I tell him is calling?"
    "Oh, this is Tao."
    "We're in the midst of an emergency meeting, can I have him call you back?"
    "That's fine, in fact if he could swing by the set later, that would be great."
    "We may be a little tied up, but I'll have him give you a call at least," I told her.
    "That's fine," she cooed. "Oh, is this Needle?"
    "Yes?"
    "We haven't actually met, I'm the woman who's playing your character in the, or the character that's loosely based on you, in the show."
    "Loosely being the operative word," I replied. "Yes."
    "Maybe we should get together. I'd like to talk to you, get the characterization down at some point."
    "Ah, yeah, maybe one of these days." When hell freezes over. "I'll tell him you called."
    "Thank you."
    "You're welcome." I hung up. "Call Tao. And hire a social secretary, for cryin' out loud."
    "Would you mind a piece of advice from an android who doesn't have a limbic system?" Scott offered as a pencil snapped in Paul's hand. "Don't call Tao."
    "I do have a limbic system," Reilly offered. "Pick one, go that way. Generally, trying to do multi-tasking relationships, bad."
    "If it's Tao, I'm never speaking to you again," I added. Thunderbolt simply looked confused.
    "If anybody could pull off both of them at the time, it would be you," Talon smirked.
    "Where were we?" I sighed.
    "Orangutans," Reilly reminded us. "We don't know how much of a force they actually have here."
    "At least three," I said.
    "Probably. They tend to operate in groups that size."
    "Rue Morgue, Ley Lady, and Ketch," Scott reiterated. "I think they'd be damned fools if they left Altar Flame in the city; he's just too recognizable in this town."
    "I agree," Reilly nodded. "From the fact that they were pulling him out amnesiac from a facility, they've probably got him somewhere recuperating. If I read the files properly, didn't his brother drop Fenway Park on him?"
    "And you were lucky you were out of town," Scott informed him.
    "Yeah, I'm not sorry I missed that one."
    "I'm hoping that the other three were just in town to help pick up Altar Flame."
    "And that maybe it's just those three? It could just be Rue Morgue, he might have just pushed them out."
    "Well, he is an assassin," I shrugged.
    "And an orangutan," Scott added brightly.
    "According to his files he's more than that, he can apparently turn into any sort of primate. He just likes being an orangutan. I wonder if we could get Traveller to show up," Reilly mused. "No wait a minute. I can't believe I'm thinking this."
    "Let's go back to the beginning statement, 'if we could get Traveller to show up,'" Scott remarked. "You want Traveller?"
    "Well, see, we could probably pay him to go away," I put in.
    "Not on our budget at the moment."
    "If you could perhaps help him to take over the extra-dimensional kingdom he wants to rule...."
    "Oh yeah, we'll be right on that," Thunderbolt nodded.
    "All that aside," Scott tried to get us back on topic. Again. We were tired and punchy.
    "Fantasizing aside, yes," I sighed.
    "When are you guys ever going to get to an extra-dimensional kingdom," Reilly chuckled. "I mean it couldn't get—"
    "Don't do that," Scott snapped. "I'm far too hurt to live through that. Going to be four days before I'm back to normal."
    Reilly sighed. "Wonderful. Plus I heard that you managed to capture some of the theme villains?"
    "We took out Roy McCoy on our way home this morning," I informed him. "He, uh, has a concussion right now."
    "Well, who does that leave us here? The Circuit Board are still loose, the Babe is still loose. Fox and Hedgehog, Archivist and Librarian."
    "Fox and Hedgehog are apparently the two to watch out for," Scott said. "They're the ones getting away with it."
    "They've got some brains," I agreed.
    "They show up, they take what they want, they go away. No fuss, no muss, no evidence."
    "They're professionals," Reilly nodded. "On a certain level, we love dealing with professionals. On another level...."
    "Well, it's a pain in the butt to catch them," Scott admitted. "On the other hand you don't end up with—"
    "Bodies," I put in bluntly.
    "You don't end up with bodies, you don't end up with them throwing hordes of rabid hyperalloy ducks into the crowd to distract you...."
    "Hyperalloy ducks?" Reilly looked amused.
    "While we're all here, I think I should give a heads-up," Talon announced. "Back when we were fighting Sabertooth, Dawn detected her."
    I nodded. "Yeah, I remember that look."
    "I don't know how, but then we don't know how Dawn does a lot of things. Anyway, she says she's got the same feeling now."
    "Well, that would explain the look on her face this morning," Scott said. "I'm not real happy about that."
    "So I don't know if it's the League of Nations guys or something else we should be worried about."
    "Maybe that supernatural murder the other day?" I suggested. It wasn't even nine in the morning, and we had about a month of work ahead of us as far as I could see. I don't even know where to start with this murder thing. Take a look at his circles, see who stood to benefit, I suppose.
    "Could be, could be," Reilly nodded.
    "It is like a whack-a-mole game," Talon observed. "You get one down, five more spring up.
    "At this point I might almost suggest you just go to bed for a couple hours," Scott suggested, looking at the rest of us critically.

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