"See you soon." I blinked a couple of times, digesting this grim turn of events. We obviously hadn't paid enough attention to Mr. Tybalt. It's not surprising that he would turn and attack Talon's "gang," but I hadn't expected him to use deadly force when he did so.
    Albert was in the front room, pacing around with a sheaf of papers in one hand. "And that, my friends, is why..." he declaimed grandly, frowned at the papers. "This just doesn't work. Bonjour," he said, noticing me.
    "Hello. We're going to be having some guests for a while, Albert," I informed him as I stood down the security system, took a quick look around to make sure there was nothing lying around that they shouldn't be able to get at.
    "Men of class and disctinction, I hope?"
    "The Blood Boards, actually."
    Beat. "I'll be getting a room at the Lenox. If you'll excuse me." He limped off to pack a bag. I wished I had the option.

[Aside: Elsewhere]

    Everyone eventually made it back to the base to discuss our latest problem.
    "Why are your guys all over the base?" Scott asked Talon, sliding into the main room. Blood Boards wandered around, behaving themselves for the most part as far as I could see. Rick and Dawn were still at the hospital, keeping vigil.
    "Because there's a war on."
    "Really."
    "The Alley Cats shot four of the Blood Boards this morning. Two of them are dead. So for the duration, they're staying here."
    "Sensei, what're we gonna do?" a Board asked.
    "We're gonna strike back," he replied grimly. "Everybody, down to the gym. That's where you guys are gonna be staying," he ordered his coterie. They grabbed their things and headed downstairs with him.
    "Nice place," one remarked on his way out, looking around.
    "Yeah, you've never been here before?" another said.
    "Shut up, shut up!" a third hissed.
    "You're really not supposed to admit that you broke in here while trying to kill Needle. It makes her twitchy," the robot informed them kindly.
    "Listen to Scott, he's very smart," the third Blood Board muttered, ushering his pals downstairs.
    Scott headed off to the lab. I figured we'd let Talon get them settled in. Then we would figure out what to do.

[Aside: Phoenix Talon]

    Dawn and Rick came in while Talon was downstairs. I was still sitting at the table with my feet up, considering developments.
    "Hi," Dawn said quietly.
    "They're all downstairs," I told Rick.
    "Thanks. Uh, this is okay?"
    "Yeah." I certainly wasn't happy about it, but what was I going to do, tell them no?
    "Thanks." He went on down to join the others.
    Dawn sat down and stared into space. I got her a cup of tea out of some vague sense that it might help. Lucky'd gotten me tea while I sat at Chandler's watching my life disintegrate.
    "Thanks."
    "You're welcome."
    "I never saw any... anything that bad before." She looked shell-shocked, gripping the mug with shaky hands.
    I couldn't think of anything to say, so we sat there quietly until Phoenix Talon returned.

[Aside: Phoenix Talon]

    Scott worked at the computer, flagging all the available information on the Alley Cats, and got on the phone to his office, setting Felix to work tracking down property and gathering points. The police didn't have a full membership list, but he got thirty names of possibles. According to rumor, the gang had well over a hundred members. He gathered a list of a half dozen places where they'd been spottedhanging out. He missed Lucky's contacts. Meanwhile, Thunderbolt familiarized himself with the information they already had on Tybalt and his gang. I'd read it earlier that afternoon, while waiting for everyone else to get back.
    Phoenix Talon came upstairs, went over to give Dawn a comforting hug. She gave him a tearful look, and they had a brief conversation in Japanese. I could guess the gist of it. She went upstairs, and the rest of us assembled for the grimmest meeting we've had in months.
    "Afternoon, everybody," Talon greeted us. "Sorry to have to bring you all here today, but the shit's gone down." He recapped the casualty situation. "I've got 'em staying down in the gym, it's the safest place in the city. The Alley Cats have shown that they can go where they want when they want, and while we're gonna change that soon, at this point it's not safe for them to be out in the city at large."
    "That makes sense," I agreed. Newton wandered into the room.
    "So I need to ask you guys for help, we can't take these guys on all by ourselves."
    "This is our job, last time I checked," I reminded him. Hardly counts as a favor. I shooed the cat off the table.
    "The main problem is, we never know where these guys are," Talon muttered. "We managed to come upon a bunch of them once, because we were incognito apparently. Nobody else here has just come upon them randomly. But look at their police records, y'know, they're out there. Somehow they know where we are."
    It seemed likely. There were too many of them, and they were too active. It was stretching coincidence that we've never run across them. The information on Tybalt gave his age as eighteen to twenty, mid to high variant primarily focused in his reflexes—probably faster than Phoenix Talon. Looks Puerto Rican. Firearms expert as well, and a remarkable ability to move without being detected. He's managed to avoid arrest throughout his career so far, so there was no photo, but we all studied the police sketches.
    "I've got an idea," Scott spoke up. "It's not a complete idea, but.... Our communication band is pretty open," he pointed out. "It's not all that difficult to modify a police scanner to listen to cell phones."
    "Could we change the frequency?" Talon asked. I frowned. We don't generally use them a lot during routine patrols; it seemed unlikely that they were exploiting that weakness. Still, better security wouldn't hurt anything.
    "Wouldn't really matter, we'd need to change out what we're using. I mean, in the short term what you're saying would work, in that they'd have to find the new frequencies...."
    Thunderbolt looked thoughtful. "If we could find someone to build it, I could design some encryption systems that we could attach."
    "If you could draw something up, maybe Dawn could make it," Talon suggested. Newton jumped up on the table again.
    "I said shoo," I told him. He curled up in the corner and sulked.

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