In Search of the Truth

Liam sighed softly as he sat back in his chair and listened with half an ear as Sandoval continued to go over Zo'or's schedule for the next two weeks.

It wasn't that he was unhappy that Sandoval was going on vacation. In fact, he'd been delighted - for his father's sake - when Da'an had broached the idea. Sandoval needed a vacation, needed to get away from the Taelons - all of them - for a bit. No, he wasn't the slightest bit unhappy about that.

What he was unhappy about was the fact that Sandoval's going on vacation left him in charge. Left him dealing with Zo'or, with the Volunteers, and with a number of duties he would much rather not assume. The only other time this had happened before was when Sandoval had been in the hospital. It had left him with a deep and abiding dislike for the job of Acting Chief Protector to the Taelon Delegation, and a much deeper respect for his father's patience.

Dealing with Zo'or had definitely been the worst part of that.

"Major!" Sandoval said sharply, interrupting Liam's preoccupation. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, Sandoval," Liam replied, keeping his voice calm. "You were saying that Zo'or has that dedication at the new Seattle Children's Hospital with Da'an on Wednesday, and then he will be attending the meeting between Si'al and the African premier later that afternoon..."

"Well, it's good to know that you're paying some attention, at least," Sandoval muttered. "Remember, Major, I don't want you improvising..."

"Don't worry, Sandoval, I'll be good," Liam returned, giving his father a sardonic grin. "No improvising, do your job exactly as you would do it... I do remember."

"Good. Now, on Thursday..."

Liam gritted his teeth as he landed the shuttle carefully in front of the Seattle Children's Hospital and looked out over the lawn, already set up for the dedication ceremony. Sandoval had only been on vacation for two days, and already Liam was more than ready to hand him back his job.

To be fair, the worst problem wasn't dealing with Zo'or, as he'd thought it would be. In fact, Zo'or had been surprisingly... well, not exactly pleasant, but at least... reasonable. It wasn't Da'an, the Volunteers - or even the rest of the Synod, which had been another of Liam's fears.

It had been Renee Palmer.

Renee apparently saw Sandoval's vacation as the perfect opportunity for the Resistance - what they'd managed to re-build after the attack Da'an had instigated - to make some moves that Sandoval would find hard to counter when he came back. The fact that Liam was in charge would, in her opinion, simply make it easier.

Liam didn't object to the idea of making a few, subtle moves; but what Renee was proposing wasn't exactly subtle. She was proposing that they set up a series of raids on selected Taelon labs - labs that contained bits and pieces of information relating to certain of Zo'or's 'special projects'. The fact that this information existed - along with its locations - was top-secret, accessible only to certain personnel. If Sandoval was there, he would pick up on the pattern of the raids immediately - and he would expect Liam to pick up on it as well, and deal with it. And with Zo'or and Sandoval already suspicious of him, the last thing Liam needed was to provide them with more ammunition.

Heaving a silent sigh, Liam returned his attention to the here and now, opening the shuttle. A Volunteer - Lieutenant Dietz, the head of the squad he'd sent to help the Seattle police with security - was waiting for him just outside.

"Any problems, Lieutenant?" he asked, getting out of the pilot's seat.

"No, sir," Dietz replied. "The police are on the alert for any sign of trouble, and I've got my squad positioned around the area, with two of them in the security station."

"Good," Liam replied, as he exited the shuttle, followed a moment later by Zo'or and Da'an.

Lt. Dietz bowed to the two Taelons, then handed Liam an earpiece. "I'll be in the security station if you need me, Major."

Liam had just enough time to nod to her in acknowledgement before Dr. Warren Hutchinson, the new hospital's administrator, hurried over to greet them. He grimaced slightly; he'd met Dr. Hutchinson a few weeks ago when Da'an had visited to arrange today's ceremony, and hadn't been overly impressed.

"Welcome to Seattle, Zo'or, Da'an... Major Kincaid. I'm so glad you could make it today."

"As are we, Dr. Hutchinson," Zo'or said, in a charming tone.

Liam shot a suspicious glance at the Synod leader. Zo'or was generally only that charming when he had something up his sleeve. Wonderful... So Zo'or's got plans for the hospital, does he? I'll have to check through Sandoval's files, see if I can find out what...

"If you'll follow me," Hutchinson continued, "we're all set up and almost ready to start."

Good, Liam thought, as he trailed after Hutchinson and the two Taelons. The sooner we get done and out of here, the better...

He stopped abruptly. What the hell...?! Why do I suddenly want to leave?

"Liam?"

Liam glanced up to see Da'an looking at him. Dr. Hutchinson and Zo'or had stopped a few feet away, both of them looking impatient.

"Is something wrong, Liam?"

"Wrong?" Liam repeated. He gave an innocent shrug, only then noticing that he'd been rubbing the palm of his hand - a nervous habit he thought he'd managed to get rid of. "No, nothing's wrong. I was just..." he shrugged again, "just thinking."

Da'an nodded, but Liam wasn't sure whether or not the Taelon believed him.

"Come on," Dr. Hutchinson urged, his tone a bit impatient.

Da'an continued to look at him for another moment or two, and then turned back to Hutchinson and Zo'or.

Liam continued trailing after them, absently scanning the area for potential problems or threats, but the majority of his attention was occupied with the question of why he felt it so important for them to leave as soon as possible.

It wasn't a vision - that would have been fairly obvious. And yet, at the same time, it felt stronger than a hunch; almost like a powerful presentiment that wasn't defined enough for a vision.

Which meant that it would probably be a wise idea to strengthen security.

Slipping his earpiece in, Liam listened for a moment to the chatter on the security channel - regular, calm, nothing unusual being reported - before interrupting.

"This is Major Kincaid. I want a full security sweep of the area. Report any anomalies to me," he ordered - quietly, so as not to be overheard by Hutchinson and the Taelons. He didn't want any questions about his sudden concern over the security arrangements.

"Yes, sir," came the prompt reply. "Starting security sweep now."

By this time they'd reached the dais, which had been set up just outside the hospital's main doors for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Liam winced slightly as he took in the broad expanse of lawn, where hundreds of chairs - most of them already filled - had been placed for the audience. The large open space hadn't been much of a security concern before, when Liam had thought that this was just going to be another 'publicity stunt', as Hayley Simmons called them; but now...

Dr. Hutchinson quickly introduced the other dignitaries gathered on the dais - among whom were the Governor of Washington State and the Mayor of Seattle - before moving to the speaker's podium to get things started.

As he began speaking, Liam sighed and leaned against the wall of the hospital. Speeches, he thought in disgust as he continued his visual scan of the crowd. This world would probably be a much better place if people didn't feel the need to make so many speeches.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Dr. Hutchinson started, "I would like to welcome you all to the opening and dedication of the new Seattle Children's Hospital. I am Dr. Warren Hutchinson, the hospital's administrator.

"Thanks to the compassion of our Taelon friends..."

Liam managed to tune out the speech as his earpiece beeped for his attention.

"Yes?" he asked quietly.

"Security sweep complete, Major. No sign of any problems," the Volunteer declared.

"Good," Liam replied, feeling exceedingly relieved. "Thank you... Roberts, isn't it?" he added, recognizing the Volunteer's voice. Cpl. Roberts, he vaguely remembered, had been one of Lili's prize piloting students.

"Yes, sir," the Volunteer answered, sounding surprised - and pleased - by the fact that Liam knew his name. "Is there anything else, Major?"

"No," Liam said. "Nothing else. Just... keep your eyes open." He shifted his weight, relaxing slightly, and prepared himself for yet another hour or so of long speeches and boredom.

Putting the scope up to his eye, he looked out over the crowd, and smiled as he focused in on his target.

The speakers set up at strategic locations around the large lawn carried Dr. Hutchinson's speech very clearly to where he was set up. From the sound of it, the good doctor was finally winding down.

Centering his target in the scope, he placed a finger on the trigger and waited.

"...And now," the doctor was saying, "I would like to introduce the one whose beneficence and generosity has given us this wonderful new, up-to-date hospital. Please join me in welcoming Zo'or, the leader of the Taelon Synod."

Beneficence and generosity... right, he thought sardonically, keeping his weapon ready as his target started to walk toward the speaker's podium.

Now! he thought, as his finger tightened on the trigger.

As Zo'or began walking toward the speaker's podium, Liam felt a sudden surge of dread and foreboding go through him. Alarmed, he pushed away from the wall and started after Zo'or, looking around carefully as he did so. What was--

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash, like sunlight on glass. Beckett's memories of dealing with terrorists appeared in front of his eyes for a moment, providing an instant explanation - a rifle scope.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Liam launched himself forward, pushing Zo'or out of the way as he pulled his gun and shouted, "Sniper!"

A moment later, agony exploded in his right arm and shoulder, and he staggered back. He was distantly aware of the shouts of panic and terror, but the pain was making it hard to think, and he found himself giving in gratefully to the blackness that surrounded him.

Sandoval sighed softly as he slouched down in his chair. His eyes went to the two framed photographs sitting on his desk, and he sighed again, unhappily.

The photos were of his unknown son. And he'd spent the past two days, as well as bits and pieces of time over the previous week, examining them for any clue as to his son's identity and location.

There were some clues. For instance, the photo of the boy as a four or five year old had him playing with a Taelon puzzle - one that had been put on the market two and a half years ago. Which meant that his son could be any age between four and eight.

It also meant that his son's identity was known by someone he himself knew, somebody who had access to his office on board the mothership - there was no other way in which the photos could have gotten there.

Unfortunately, there were also some problems with those facts that he'd established.

First of all, he'd been married to DeeDee eight years ago, and he'd been faithful to her - physically, at least - until her death two years ago. During that time, she had never once gotten pregnant, although they'd tried. They'd both wanted children.

Which meant that the boy had to be at least eight, if not older - or else he was missing something.

Then there was the matter of the access to his office.

The only ones who could access his office while he wasn't there were the Taelons, Major Kincaid, and Volunteer Captain Jardine - his aide since he'd sent Marquette to the Jaridians.

He thought it unlikely that it was any of the Taelons - except perhaps Da'an - would do something like this, even if they knew about his son. They would be much more likely to use him as a bargaining tool. Which left Kincaid and Captain Jardine--

His thoughts were interrupted as his screen suddenly switched on, showing a newscast. He'd set it to do that whenever it picked up anything about the Taelons.

"This is Natalie Durant with the news from the coast," the anchor was saying. "In startling news today, there was an attempted assassination in Seattle, Washington, where Zo'or, leader of the Taelon Synod, and our North American Companion, Da'an, were attending the opening ceremony of the new Seattle Children's Hospital. The following scene was recorded by our cameraman, who was there to cover the ceremony."

Assassination?!

The screen changed to show the front of the hospital. Dr. Hutchinson - who was, in Sandoval's opinion, more arrogant than his medical skills warranted, as well as being a long-winded bore - was at the speaker's podium; Sandoval picked out Da'an, Zo'or and Major Kincaid behind him, along with a few other human dignitaries.

"...whose beneficence and generosity has given us this new, wonderful, up-to-date hospital," Hutchinson was saying. Sandoval couldn't help smiling, despite the seriousness of the news; judging from the expression on Kincaid's face, the doctor had been droning on for a while at this point. "Please join me in welcoming Zo'or, the leader of the Taelon Synod."

Sandoval watched as Zo'or started to approach the podium, followed by Major Kincaid. Then, suddenly, his attention focused on Kincaid as he saw the Major stiffen abruptly. A moment later, Kincaid was flinging himself at Zo'or, and shouting something.

Then as Sandoval continued to watch, shocked, a bright red blotch blossomed on Kincaid's shoulder, and the Protector staggered back, collapsing.

Then the scene switched back to the studio. "The only casualty in the attack was Companion-Protector Major Liam Kincaid, as he saved Zo'or from the sniper's attack. We have been told that the injury is not serious, and that Major Kincaid will be returning to duty as soon as possible.

"At the moment, information is sparse regarding the identity of the assassin, although speculations suggest that it may have been a Resistance-arranged attack..."

Sandoval shut the set off and pulled out his global. Kincaid had said that he would be taking Lieutenant Dietz's squad with him to provide security; one of them should be able to tell him precisely what had been discovered so far.

A moment later, Lt. Dietz's face appeared in his global.

"Lieutenant," Sandoval said coolly.

"Agent Sandoval? I thought you were--"

"I am," Sandoval interrupted. "However, I just saw the newscast of the incident in Seattle. What exactly happened, Lieutenant?"

Dietz looked uncomfortable. Good, Sandoval thought grimly. A Taelon martyr was the last thing he needed right now - and that would have been exactly what would have happened if Zo'or had been killed at today's ceremony.

"The sniper was on the rooftop of the west wing of the hospital, sir," Dietz said. "He or she must have gotten into place after the second security sweep--"

"Wait a minute..." Sandoval interrupted. "Second security sweep?"

"Yes, sir. The one Major Kincaid ordered."

Sandoval sighed mentally, careful to keep his impatience and irritation off his face - a skill that had always served him quite well. "Why don't you tell me exactly what happened, from the beginning?" he suggested.

"Yes, sir," Lt. Dietz replied. She took a deep breath. "Major Kincaid requested that my team help the Seattle police provide security for the ceremony," she explained. "We arrived at 0800 local time, and helped Dr. Hutchinson's people set up for the ceremony, so that we had a good idea of where everything was located. I then sent most of my team to do a physical inspection of the area, while two of my people directed a sensor sweep from the security station. I inspected the rooftops myself, sir, and there was no one there at that time.

"Once the physical inspection was finished, I had my people - except for Roberts and Tsue, who were assigned to the security station - start helping the police with crowd control, with orders to be on the lookout for any possible Resistance members or sympathizers. Everything was in order when Major Kincaid arrived with Zo'or and Da'an, which was when the Major ordered another last-minute security sweep. The sweep was completed just as Dr. Hutchinson began his speech."

"And the results of that sweep?"

"Negative, sir. No problems were detected. Major Kincaid seemed to be very relieved about that."

Which could mean that either this was a Resistance operation he was aware of, and he didn't want the assassin discovered; or that for some reason, he was afraid that something might happen, Sandoval reflected. I hope, for his sake, that it was the latter. "Then what happened, Lieutenant?" he asked out loud.

"Dr. Hutchinson's speech went on for a while, and then he introduced Zo'or. Zo'or was just starting for the speaker's podium when Major Kincaid pushed him away and started yelling that there was a sniper. The next thing I know, the Major's unconscious on the dais and the audience is running around in an absolute panic.

"By the time my people managed to get through the crowd, Major Kincaid had regained consciousness, though he still didn't look too well. He was able to tell us that he'd seen a flash of sunlight reflected off a scope, and that it was what had warned him. That's when we found out where the gunman was."

"But whoever it was escaped?" Sandoval demanded.

"Yes, sir. When we got up there, there was no one around. Seattle Forensics and some of my people are still examining the area."

"And Major Kincaid?"

"The Major was saying that he would be fine, but Da'an insisted that he be taken to Washington General," Lt. Dietz replied. "He said something about a Dr. Park. I sent half my squad with them, to provide security."

"Thank you," Sandoval said. He paused for a moment, and then added grimly, "Inform me as soon as you receive any further information regarding the shooter... and how he was able to evade a full security sweep."

For a moment, Dietz looked as though she were about to protest. Then she stopped herself, and merely asked, "You will be taking charge of the investigation, sir?"

"For the moment," Sandoval replied, and then shut his global. It was what would be expected of him by the Synod, that he cut short his vacation and resume his duties until Kincaid was better.

Let's hope the news report was right and it isn't as serious an injury as it looked, he thought grimly as he pulled on a jacket and headed out the door. The sooner Kincaid is back on duty, the sooner I can go back to finding my son.

He arrived at Washington General twenty minutes later. He was pleased to see that there were no reporters hanging around; whatever else had gone wrong, at least Kincaid's whereabouts had been kept secret.

One of Lt. Dietz's squad was in the main Emergency reception area. Walking up to him, Sandoval demanded to know where Major Kincaid was.

"Sir," the Volunteer said, saluting sharply. "He's on the second floor, south wing. Corporals Bruneau and Roberts are stationed outside his room."

"Good," Sandoval replied. He glanced around. "And what about the rest of your squad, Private?"

"Sergeant Nicholls is in the hospital's security station; Private Anderson is in Main Reception. The rest of the squad is still with Lt. Dietz in Seattle, sir."

"And what about Zo'or and Da'an?" Sandoval demanded.

"Zo'or has returned to the mothership, sir. Da'an is with Major Kincaid."

Sandoval nodded. "If any reporters get word that Major Kincaid is here and show up, I want you to let me know immediately," he ordered, and then started for the elevators.

Once on the second floor, it wasn't difficult to figure out which room Kincaid was in - the two Volunteers standing guard were rather obvious. Nodding to them as he approached, Sandoval opened the door and stepped in, right into the middle of an argument.

Kincaid, his right arm in a sling and his face pale, was standing next to a bed, his customary leather jacket half on. Dr. Park, her expression furious, was facing him with her hands on her hips, and Da'an was off to one side, his eyes going from one to the other as they argued, almost like a spectator at a tennis match.

"I'm fine!" Kincaid was shouting as Sandoval quietly closed the door behind him. None of the three appeared to have noticed his entrance.

"You are not fine!" Dr. Park snapped. "Your collarbone is broken, there's a great deal of soft tissue damage in your shoulder, and you've lost way too much blood! I don't exactly have an unlimited supply of your type, Liam!"

"I'm fine," Kincaid reiterated. "I'll take it easy for a day or two - but I need to find out who the sniper was. We can't have someone running around taking potshots at the Taelons."

"Might I remind you that bullets can't harm Taelons? For once in your life, worry a bit about yourself, Liam! I'm sure that Sandoval is perfectly capable of conducting this investigation. You, on the other hand, need to stay put and take it easy for more than just a day or two!"

"Dr. Park is correct, Liam," Da'an added. "You were wounded; you require time to recover. Agent Sandoval will--"

"Sandoval's on a well-deserved vacation," Kincaid snapped back. "You are not going to disturb him for this, Da'an! If I haven't managed to solve it by the time he comes back, fine, he can take over the investigation then. But you are not interrupting his vacation!"

Puzzled by Kincaid's insistence, Sandoval nonetheless decided it was time to interrupt, before the Major exploded. He stepped forward, the movement drawing everyone's eyes.

"Da'an, Doctor Park, Major," he said, nodding to them.

Kincaid looked a bit flustered. "What are you doing here, Sandoval? You're supposed to be on vacation!"

"I heard the news report, Major," Sandoval replied. "My duty to the Taelons is more important than a vacation." He was lying through his teeth - this particular vacation was very important - but he'd been doing quite a bit of that lately. "Until you are recovered, I will handle the investigation into this incident."

Kincaid looked upset at that. "But..." he started. "But it's just a broken collarbone, Sandoval. It might slow me down a bit physically, but it won't impede my ability to handle this."

Sandoval studied him for a moment, trying to understand what he was thinking. If it was a Resistance-organized attack, it was more than possible that Kincaid wanted to handle the investigation in order to re-direct it. On the other hand... all Sandoval's instincts were telling him that Kincaid hadn't known about this, and was being honest when he claimed that he wanted it solved. So what should I do?

"Liam," Dr. Park began. Her tone was both surprisingly patient and almost maternal - as though she were talking to a child - which puzzled Sandoval. However, he didn't have the time or the inclination to figure out why she was behaving that way at the moment. "It isn't just a broken collarbone. I told you, you've lost a lot of blood - you look as though you're about to collapse right now - and the bullet did a great deal of soft tissue and nerve damage. You're extremely lucky that it didn't puncture your lung as well. Your arm and shoulder need to be immobilized for at least two weeks, preferably three, if you're going to have full use back. You cannot handle a full investigation with those restrictions."

"I have to agree with Dr. Park," Da'an added. "If necessary, I will make it an order, Liam. Agent Sandoval will handle the investigation into this incident either until it is solved, or you are capable of resuming your full duties."

Kincaid looked pleadingly at Sandoval, obviously wanting him to help.

"I will require some assistance, Major," Sandoval said finally. With Da'an threatening to make Kincaid's non-involvement an order, it was the best he could do.

Judging from Kincaid's expression, he knew it too, though he wasn't happy about it. "All right."

Dr. Park's mouth tightened as she looked at the two of them. "Liam..."

Kincaid stared her down. "We need to find out who is responsible. I need to find out who is responsible."

"You are staying here for another two days, at the very least, until I'm satisfied that your body has managed to replace the blood you've lost," Dr. Park insisted.

"Sorry, Doctor, but I've got a job to do," Kincaid countered. "Come on, Da'an. We've got to get you up to the mothership, and then Sandoval and I have to get back to Seattle."

"Liam, you are not--"

Kincaid just looked at her for a moment, and Sandoval was surprised to see Dr. Park give in. "All right," she said, with obvious reluctance. "But you aren't going to be piloting a shuttle, Liam. Not until you're completely healed. In fact, I don't want you using your right arm or hand at all. And Agent Sandoval," she turned to him, "I'm making you personally responsible for Major Kincaid. If he aggravates his wound, you're going to hear from me."

Kincaid flushed bright red. "Doctor--"

"Take it or leave it."

Sandoval looked at the two of them. There was something going on here, between them, something that he didn't know about. Something that involved him in some way. But he didn't have time to worry about that right now. He nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well, Doctor, I agree. I believe both Corporal Roberts and Sergeant Nicholls are shuttle pilots; the Sergeant can take Da'an back to the mothership, and Corporal Roberts will take us to Seattle."

Liam frowned as he studied the rooftop. When they'd arrived back in Seattle, before she and her squad had returned to their base, Lt. Dietz had informed them that the Seattle PD hadn't found anything to explain how the sniper had evaded security - something that Liam definitely wanted to know. If his presentiment was any guide, then the sniper had been in position before the second sweep. But the only thing they'd found was a scrap of cloth caught in the door - obviously the gunman had left in a hurry.

He glanced over to where Sandoval was talking to Captain Kelman of the Seattle PD Major Crime unit.

He really hadn't wanted Sandoval called away from his vacation. His father needed the time away - he hadn't had a vacation in all the time he'd been serving the Taelons. Now, because of some gunman, he'd been pulled back after only two days - the equivalent to a weekend. Certainly not the longer vacation Liam felt he needed. He could only hope that Zo'or would agree to letting Sandoval continue the vacation once this was over.

He frowned thoughtfully. A gunman who doesn't seem to realize that bullets can't hurt Taelons - which is strange, because I thought everyone knew about the Rho'ha trial. It was certainly publicized enough.

And then there was Dr. Park...

What was that all about? She doesn't like Sandoval in the first place - why would she make him responsible for me?

And since when do I need someone else to be responsible for my actions?

Or... does she suspect what I'm trying to do? And if she does... will she tell Doors? Liam didn't really think so. Dr. Park had gone to bat with Doors for him before. Perhaps, if she does know, that was her way of telling me she approves...

I hope so.

"Major."

Turning around, Liam saw Sandoval standing there, looking at him. "What is it? Did the police find something?" he asked, suddenly realizing that they were alone. Captain Kelman had obviously headed back down.

"No, nothing else," Sandoval replied. He looked over the roof, and then returned his attention to Liam. "You ordered a second security sweep after you arrived. Why?"

Liam hid a grimace. Looks like it's my turn for the interrogation. At least Sandoval had saved the question until they were alone.

Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly tell the other man the truth - not the entire truth, at least.

"I started to feel uneasy as soon as we left the shuttle," he explained. "I figured that another security sweep might not be a bad idea. Better to be safe than sorry."

Sandoval nodded thoughtfully. "Lt. Dietz told me that you saw the scope," he continued. "Can you tell me exactly what happened?"

Liam took a deep breath. "Volunteer Roberts let me know that the sweep had turned up no problems just after Hutchinson's speech started. I was relieved, since it meant that I had probably just been imagining things - doing your job is really stressful, Sandoval," he added pointedly.

"Anyway, Hutchinson's speech was boring, so I was concentrating on the crowd, trying to get a sense of what they thought of the ceremony. Then, when Zo'or started for the podium, I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye. I moved to get a better vantage point, and that's when I saw the flash of reflected sunlight. I went to push Zo'or out of the way, and then the bullet must have hit my shoulder, because I felt this sudden, sharp pain and then blacked out for a moment."

Sandoval studied him for a moment, and then turned his attention to the view from the roof. Relieved that his father's attention was off him, Liam leaned surreptitiously against the wall. He was feeling dizzy, but he didn't want Sandoval to notice and send him back to Washington as if he was a disobedient child - although he had the uncomfortable feeling that a child was exactly what Dr. Park considered him at the moment.

He was a fast healer - a gift from the Kimera side of his heritage; it shouldn't take much more than another hour or two before he recovered from the blood loss.

"And he used a rifle..." Sandoval muttered, and Liam was about to answer before he realized that Sandoval was just thinking out loud. "Why would someone use a rifle to assassinate a Taelon?"

"A warning?" Liam suggested, before he thought about what he was saying.

Sandoval turned around, and Liam could see the sudden interest in his expression. "What makes you say that, Major?"

"I'm not sure," Liam said slowly, shifting uncomfortably. The analgesic Dr. Park had given him was starting to wear off, and the pain in his shoulder was making itself known. Between that and trying not to pass out... his mouth was obviously moving faster than his brain right now.

"I was just... thinking. Everyone knows that bullets won't hurt Taelons, so why would someone shoot at a Taelon with bullets if they meant to kill them? So what I thinking was: what if the intention wasn't to kill Zo'or? What if it was meant to act as a warning? 'Pay attention or the next time it'll be an energy blast'?"

"An interesting theory, Major. It does make a certain amount of sense... but if it is a warning, what is it warning about?"

Liam started to shrug, and then thought better of it. Moving his shoulder was not something he wanted to do at the moment. "I haven't a clue. You know I'm not exactly privy to Zo'or's pet projects."

The look Sandoval gave him at that was an irritated one. Liam ignored it. "You'd be a lot more inclined to know what Zo'or might be doing that would merit this kind of warning."

In turn, Sandoval chose to ignore the hint. "I would expect that someone who would go to so much trouble to arrange a warning such as this would leave some form of message so that the target would know what the warning was about."

"Who can tell? This guy shot at Zo'or, Sandoval," Liam countered. "That's not exactly the sign of a balanced mind. Not when there's security everywhere."

"He did manage to get away," Sandoval pointed out. Then he frowned. "Major... you're too pale," he said, his tone surprisingly concerned. "I think we had better return to Washington; there's nothing else we can find out here - not at the moment, at least."

Liam took a deep breath. He'd have argued, but Sandoval was right about there being nothing left here. Forensics and the Volunteers had been all over the place. They weren't going to find anything else. "All right," he said, pushing himself away from the wall with his left hand. Then he staggered, another wave of dizziness sweeping over him for a moment. When he recovered, Sandoval was standing next to him, holding his arm.

"Come on, Major, let's get back to the shuttle. I think you need to sit down for a bit."

Sandoval studied Kincaid carefully as they took the elevator down to ground level. The younger man was as pale as a ghost, and he hadn't argued after his near-collapse up on the roof - obviously, he wasn't feeling quite as up to this as he'd thought he would.

He himself was feeling surprised at the amount of concern he felt for Kincaid. Yes, they'd gotten closer since his time in the hospital, had even become friends - sort of - particularly after Kincaid had arranged that surprise party for him.

But at the same time, they were - as far as Kincaid knew - diametrically opposed on their views about the Taelons, no matter what opinions the Major embraced publicly. Kincaid had ties to the Resistance - was, in fact, fairly highly placed in the Resistance, something he'd learned just recently from Sister Elizabeth's diary. And, as far as Kincaid knew, he was still a loyal Taelon agent.

And yet, he reflected, since his sojourn in the hospital...

Sandoval took a deep breath. A lot of things had changed for him since the time he'd spent in the hospital, including his relationship with Liam Kincaid.

None of that explained this concern for him, though.

Getting into the shuttle, they strapped themselves in.

"Where to now, sirs?" the Volunteer pilot asked.

"Back to Washington," Sandoval ordered. As the shuttle rose from the ground, he turned to face Kincaid. "I think you had better go home and get some rest once we arrive, Major," he said. "You can't help find this attacker if you end up back in hospital."

Kincaid shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. "I am feeling a bit... tired," he admitted with obvious reluctance.

"In that case, we'll get some rest and start fresh in the morning. Hopefully Seattle PD Forensics should have something for us by then on that scrap of cloth they found."

Kincaid turned at looked at him thoughtfully. "That reminds me... What's with letting the police forensics unit handle this? I thought you would have insisted on bringing in the Bureau. Since Zo'or was the target, you have every right to do so..."

Sandoval shrugged. "Seattle PD has equipment equal to that of the FBI, and even our forensics people respect the Chief of Forensics there. I've been told she's something of a wizard at getting a great deal of information from very little. They suggested I leave it in her hands for the moment."

There was a bit of jolt as they entered ID space, but Sandoval hardly noticed it, he was so used to it by now. Kincaid's face paled slightly, though, and Sandoval guessed that it had jarred his wounded shoulder.

"Did Dr. Park give you any painkillers?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kincaid replied shortly. "But I'm not allowed to take any for another two hours. She wants the drugs they gave me at the hospital to be completely out of my system before I introduce any others.

"So, assuming they don't find anything, what's next?" Kincaid continued. It was obvious that he wasn't interested in discussing his injury.

"We have someone do a thorough diagnostic of the security sensors," Sandoval replied, going along with the change of subject. "There shouldn't have been any way for someone to evade those."

Kincaid nodded in agreement as they exited ID space. "Yes, that's been bothering me too. I can't see how someone could have managed to get up there and set up between the security sweep and the end of Dr. Hutchinson's speech. It was only about a ten-minute window."

"And then evaded the sensors after the shooting. Even if they didn't know exactly where the shot came from, whoever was in the security station should have been scanning the area for anything suspicious the moment it happened."

The shuttle landed smoothly, and the Volunteer unstrapped himself. "We've arrived at the Embassy, sir."

"Good," Sandoval said, getting up. "Major, we'll meet back here at 0900 hours tomorrow morning."

Kincaid nodded in agreement as he stood up and started out of the shuttle. "9 o'clock, right. I'll see you then, Sandoval."

Once he was gone, Sandoval turned to the pilot. "Very smooth ride, Corporal."

"Thank you, sir," the Volunteer replied.

Sandoval nodded to him, and then headed out. He wanted to get a bit of rest before tomorrow - he had the feeling that he was going to need it.

He stared at the television, dismayed. Damn it! Not only had he missed, which should have been impossible, but he hadn't even seriously injured the damned Taelon's Protector! How had that happened?

And how had the Protector known he was there?

Well, he'd just have to come up with something else. Something better. Something the target wouldn't be able to escape or evade.

Liam jerked awake with a gasp of shock that quickly changed to one of pain as agony flared up in his shoulder. Sitting up, he took a slow, deep breath, followed by another, trying to control the pain enough to allow him to get up.

After a few minutes, the agony had been reduced to a dull throbbing, and he managed to relax a bit.

Looking at his bedside clock, he groaned. It was 5 a.m. - he had four full hours before he was supposed to meet Sandoval at the Embassy. And while he'd intended to go and check some things with Augur before that meeting, he couldn't do that yet either - Augur would kill him if he woke him up before seven-thirty.

Which meant that he had at least two hours with nothing to do. There was no way he was going to be able to get back to sleep - not after that last dream.

Remembering it, he shivered.

It hadn't been anything really defined, nothing that could explain why he had been so terrified. Just a shape in a blackness - a human shape - and a sense of dread; a sense that was reminiscent of what he'd felt yesterday, just before the sniper had taken aim at Zo'or.

Slowly unwinding the gauze he'd used to immobilize his arm while he slept, Liam shook his head as he made his decision. Let Augur complain. He wasn't going to stay here right now with the memory of that dream haunting him.

Finished with the gauze, he put it down on his bedside table and picked up the clean shirt he'd left there last night. He slipped it on very carefully, and then put the sling Dr. Park had ordered him to wear back on.

He stood up carefully, and was relieved to find that the dizziness that had been plaguing him yesterday was gone. Between the blood Dr. Park had given him yesterday and his body's recuperative powers, it appeared that he was no longer suffering from the effects of blood loss.

Rubbing absently at an itchy spot on his right palm, Liam headed downstairs to the Flat Planet's kitchen. Grabbing three of the painkillers, along with a few granola bars from the cupboard for breakfast, he carefully pulled on his jacket and slipped out to the church.

Augur stumbled wearily out of his bedroom and glared as he saw who had disturbed him.

"Liam, I don't know if you realize this, but I do need my sleep," he grumbled. "It's only 5:30 in the morning, for crissakes."

Liam turned to face him. "I need your help, Augur."

"My help?" Augur repeated in disbelief. Sometimes he wasn't sure whether or not he should give the kid a good swift kick in the butt. When he tried to save the kid's life, it was, 'Augur, you betrayed me'; but as soon as a problem came up, Liam was asking for his help. "And just what do you expect me to do this--"

He cut himself off suddenly as he got a good look at the kid.

Liam had just slipped his jacket off, and Augur was stunned to see that his right arm was in a sling. "What happened?" he demanded.

Liam's eyes widened in surprise. "Don't tell me you didn't see the news yesterday!"

Augur shrugged. "I was busy. What happened?"

"Zo'or and Da'an were at the opening ceremony for that new Children's Hospital in Seattle," Liam replied. "Someone took a shot at Zo'or from the roof of the hospital, and got me instead when I pushed him out of the way. The bullet went through my shoulder and broke my collarbone; Dr. Park's given me orders to keep my shoulder and arm immobilized for a few weeks, until it heals."

"Okay... so, why did you push Zo'or out of the way?" Augur demanded.

Liam rolled his eyes. "What was I supposed to do - let him become a martyr? At the time I did it, I didn't realize that the gunman was using bullets, not an energy weapon."

Augur heaved a sigh. And an energy weapon would have been better for you? "So, did you catch whoever was responsible?"

Liam shook his head as he sat down on the couch. "No; that's the problem. Because I'm 'walking wounded', Da'an insisted that Sandoval give up his vacation for the moment and head up the investigation into the incident. I managed to convince him not to sideline me completely, but the sooner we find out who did this and catch them, the sooner Sandoval can go back to his vacation."

Augur studied the kid for a moment, frowning. Liam was up to something, something that had to do with Sandoval. He had been for a while, Augur thought, but it had become more obvious over the past week, ever since that surprise birthday party he'd arranged. For some reason, Sandoval's vacation seemed to be an integral part of whatever it was Liam had in mind. And Augur suspected that it had nothing to do with wanting the Resistance free to make a few unhindered advances.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, deciding that he would keep a close eye on the kid for a while. Keep him out of trouble... and make sure that whatever he was planning that involved Sandoval, it wouldn't jump up and bite him in the ass.

Liam looked relieved; it appeared that he hadn't been sure Augur would agree. "Somehow, the gunman managed to evade a full security sweep. Sandoval's going to have someone do a diagnostic on the sensors, but I'd also like you to see what you can find out; check the sensor logs and see if a full sweep was actually done, that sort of thing. The sweep was only about ten minutes before the shooting."

Augur's eyebrows went up in surprise. "That short a time? I would have thought that whoever was handling security would have done a sweep before you even arrived."

"They did," Liam replied. He fidgeted for a moment. "I ordered another one."

"Why?" Augur asked.

Liam squirmed. "I had a... feeling that something was going to happen."

"A feeling," Augur repeated. He looked carefully at Liam.

He was fully aware just how much Liam's alien heritage scared the kid at times. It was, he suspected, caused by a combination of the Taelons' - Da'an's - fear of the Kimera, Doors' distrust of Liam's heritage, and what had happened when he'd traveled through Ma'el's gateway.

What Liam had told Palmer when he had revealed his secret to her had been quite telling: that he was becoming more human the longer he spent on Earth.

That, Augur knew, was absolute nonsense. Yes, Liam spent most of his time among humans - had essentially been raised by humans, with some help from Da'an; but that didn't mean that he was becoming 'more' human. He was who he was - a Human/Kimera hybrid.

Yes, he hadn't used his shaqarava since that incident with the Jaridian probe and Operation Dark Knight, but despite what Liam obviously wanted to believe, it didn't mean that they were gone. It just meant that either he had gained conscious control of them, or that they were currently dormant and he hadn't been in a situation where they had activated instinctively.

In Augur's opinion, Liam was just hiding from himself. And he dreaded what would happen when the kid was forced to see that.

"Yes, a feeling," Liam returned irritably, drawing Augur out of his thoughts. "It wasn't as strong as a vision... but I knew something was going to happen. I just wasn't sure what."

"All right," Augur said after a moment. "I'll do what I can. I can't promise you anything, though."

"Anything you can get will help," Liam assured him, a smile crossing his face. "Thanks, Augur."

"You're welcome," Augur replied. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed. I'll give you a call as soon as I find anything."

"Okay," Liam replied. He gave Augur another smile, and then headed out.

Sandoval rubbed his eyes tiredly as he leaned back in his chair. He'd managed to get a few hours of sleep, and then he'd gotten up to see if he could make any progress on the search for his son before he had to meet Kincaid at the Embassy.

He hadn't really had all that much luck. His intention had been to see if anyone had accessed his office on the mothership on his birthday between the time Kincaid had gotten him out of there and when he'd come back in the next morning, but according to the mothership's access log, no one had. So either someone had gotten in, and then erased the log, or else the package had been left there sometime during the day, and he hadn't noticed it; in which case, his list of suspects had just expanded to include half the Volunteers on the ship

So many questions... he thought sourly. His eyes went to the photos again.

"Where are you?" he murmured, brushing one finger against the picture of the four-year-old. Such a solemn expression... "Who looks after you?"

He sighed. Everything pointed inescapably toward one fact: whoever had his son, they knew that the boy was his son. How else could he have gotten the blood that had saved him? How else could the photos have appeared in his office?

But whoever had him, they didn't want Sandoval to know who they were, and they didn't want him to meet the boy. They had gone to a great deal of trouble to ensure that, even making sure that his son's DNA wasn't registered - they'd most likely created a false record for him.

More questions. Why? Because I'm an Implant? Because I work for the Taelons? Is that it? Or is it something else?

And yet, the boy knew precisely who he was. The birthday card had been addressed to him by name, and written in the same handwriting as the message inside the card.

Picking the card up, he looked at it again.

It was a very simple card, one that could have been bought almost anywhere in North America or Europe. Anywhere in the English-speaking world, in fact. Trying to trace it would be futile. But he wanted to.

Sighing, he let his head drop down to his chest. The task seemed hopeless - but it was something he had to do. He had to find his son. He was the only person Sandoval had left.

Time to take a different tack, he decided abruptly. Dr. Curzon had mentioned something when she'd told him about the blood - something that he wanted to follow up on. And he had an appointment with her later this morning; he'd speak to her about it then.

That decision made, Sandoval felt himself relax a bit.

Now, on to the other problem he had to deal with. The gunman.

It was six o'clock here - much too early to call Seattle. He'd have to wait until after the meeting with Kincaid.

But what he could do was get a hold of his contacts, see if any of them had any ideas about the identity of whoever had been responsible. It might take a while, but it should help narrow things down.

Liam winced as he stopped walking a block away from the Embassy. There was a crowd of reporters gathered by the entrance, and it didn't take much thought to realize that they probably wanted to speak to Da'an about the attack - but he had no doubt that they would be more than happy to interview him if they could. This was not something he wanted to face, not right now. Not ever, actually, but considering that he was Da'an's Protector, avoiding the press was something that he couldn't normally get away with.

However, this time... he was definitely going to try. The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was discuss his injury, especially with reporters.

What are they doing here this early, anyway? Don't they know that Da'an's not there? And even if he was, he wouldn't be available this early...

Luckily, none of the reporters knew about the subterranean tunnels that led to the Embassy; the same tunnels he'd faced the Jaridian replicant in when he was barely two days old. If he slipped into the Embassy that way, he should be able to avoid them completely.

Fifteen minutes later, Liam sat down at his desk and did his best to relax. Da'an was currently on the mothership - it was safer for him to remain there for the moment - so he was alone. For a few minutes, anyway, there was no tension in the air, no need to put up a façade of normality while keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself...

All right, Liam, enough with the brooding, he scolded himself. Do yourself a favour for once and concentrate on something other than the mess between you and Da'an.

Glancing down, he grimaced at the paperwork that had been piling up since Monday. Most of the time, he managed to get any paperwork he needed to do finished at night, after his work hours were officially over. But since he'd been subbing in for Sandoval, as well as doing his own work...

Heaving a sigh, he tugged the pile a bit closer to him and scanned the top sheet. Well, that one was easy, it just needed his...

...Signature. Which was impossible at the moment, since his right arm was completely immobilized, and had to remain that way.

His expression darkened, becoming a scowl. This wasn't fair...

Well, maybe there was something here that didn't need his signature... or, at least, needed more than just his signature. He could write well enough with his left hand - he'd proved that to his satisfaction a week and a half ago - and if it looked a bit childish, well, he didn't really care about that.

He started to skim through the papers. Signature, signature, signature... FYI memo about the pilot training program - that can wait... signature, signature... Ah, here's one--

"Major," came Sandoval's voice from the door, and Liam glanced up to see him standing there, looking a bit surprised. "I didn't expect you to be in so early."

"It's almost..." Liam shot a quick look at the small clock on his desk, and winced. It was only six forty-five. He'd thought it was later than that. "Oh." He shrugged his left shoulder, then winced again - in pain this time. "I woke up early and decided to come in and try to clear my desk a bit. When do you ever find time to do your paperwork?"

He got the hint of a smile out of Sandoval with that one. "Whenever I get a spare moment," came the reply. "Which is almost never... It's going to be a bit hard to do with your arm like that, though."

"Tell me about it," Liam muttered. He leaned back in his seat, pushing the papers away, and looked up at Sandoval. "Have you managed to find anything?"

Sandoval sighed as he leaned against the doorway. "Well, I've put some feelers out; hopefully I'll get some responses fairly soon. I did have Volunteer Sergeant Bracer go over the scanner equipment; there was nothing wrong with it."

Liam nodded. "Wonderful..." he said sourly. "And I assume we haven't spoken to Seattle yet..."

"No; it's still too early there."

Liam sighed and slumped a bit. "So, any more ideas on what was up with this guy?"

Sandoval shook his head as he entered the room. "I'm afraid not. So far your theory that it was a warning is better than any of the ones I've come up with."

"Have you asked Zo'or about that?" Liam asked, sitting up straight.

"He can't think of anything that might be a reason for this sort of reaction," Sandoval replied.

Liam snorted in disbelief. "Right," he muttered, just as Sandoval's global beeped.

Opening it, Sandoval blinked in surprise. "Yes?"

"Agent Sandoval, I've found something interesting that I think you and Major Kincaid should see," Liam heard a female voice say. He looked at Sandoval questioningly, wondering who it was.

"We'll be there within the hour," Sandoval replied. "Thank you."

"Who was that?" Liam asked, as his father closed the global.

"The Seattle PD's Chief of Forensics," Sandoval said.

Liam stood up, eager to get going. If she had found something... "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Sandoval looked at him in clear exasperation. "I seem to remember that Dr. Park made mention of the fact that you weren't to do any piloting for a few weeks," he replied. "Which means that we've got to get a pilot from the mothership."

Liam dropped back down into his seat. "Right." He really didn't like the idea of letting someone else pilot him around - in his opinion, one of the best perks of being a Companion-Protector was that he got to fly a shuttle whenever he wanted - but Sandoval was right. Even if the pain didn't get him, Dr. Park would. And Liam didn't want to make her angry - her temper was even worse than Doors' when a patient did something she had forbidden.

"Is there anyone that you would prefer?" Sandoval asked. "We might as well get someone who can be assigned to you for the next several weeks."

Liam shook his head. "No, no real preference. I don't know enough about the Volunteer pilots' skills to be able to choose anyone in particular."

Sandoval studied him for a moment, and then nodded. "All right... How about Corporal Roberts?"

Roberts was the Volunteer who had piloted them yesterday, the one Lili had taught. Based on what Liam had seen of him so far, she'd been right to consider him a prize pupil. "Sounds fine to me," he replied.

"I'll call up to the mothership and arrange for his re-assignment," Sandoval said. "It will probably take about half an hour to get him down here."

Liam nodded in agreement, sighing. "In that case, I might as well see if I can actually get any of this done," he muttered, glaring at the paperwork on his desk.

Sandoval re-opened his global and called up to the mothership, ordering Captain Jardine to see about sending Roberts down with the shuttle and making the arrangements to assign him to the Major.

He'd been a bit surprised when Kincaid had mentioned that he didn't really know much about the skills of the other pilots. Of course, Kincaid had been trained directly by Captain Marquette, and didn't have very much to do with the Volunteers in the first place, but still... perhaps getting him more involved in that part of the Volunteer program would be useful. He'd have to think about it a bit, see how Kincaid interacted with Roberts, but it was definitely an idea to consider.

Am I thinking what I think I'm thinking? Sandoval asked himself abruptly. He'd never really considered it before, even after figuring out that Kincaid was a member of the Resistance. But now...

This might just work. I'll have to broach it carefully, of course, but bringing Kincaid in might be exactly what we need...

Shutting his global, Sandoval studied Kincaid thoughtfully. The younger man was concentrating on what appeared to be an incident report form, a frown crossing his face as he read through it.

He didn't really know all that much about Kincaid, not really. He knew that the Major was good at protecting Da'an, was in the Resistance, and enjoyed hanging out at the Flat Planet Café, and that was about it. Nothing about his personal life, about what he liked to do in what spare time he had, between the Taelons and the Resistance. Sandoval didn't even know anything about the Major's family.

That would have to change if he was going to bring Kincaid in... but it would have to wait for later. They had a gunman to find first.

Which reminds me... "Major, have you any theories as to why not only the sensors but the Volunteers themselves missed the gunman during the second sweep?"

Kincaid looked up from his paperwork with a thoughtful frown. "No; I hadn't really thought about that part of it," he admitted. His frown deepened. "It's possible..." he began slowly.

"What?" Sandoval demanded.

"It's possible that they didn't actually do a physical search on the second sweep," Kincaid replied after a moment. "I asked for it after we left the shuttle, and I got the report just after Dr. Hutchinson started speaking. It couldn't have been more than five to ten minutes; plenty of time to conduct a full sensor sweep, but not enough for a thorough physical search."

Sandoval's frown echoed Kincaid's. "You're right, Major; that definitely isn't enough time." If one - or some - of the Volunteers were in on this... "We're going to have to ask some questions, and get started on some digging. Once we speak to Forensics, we'll go on from there."

Kincaid nodded in agreement.

Abruptly, Sandoval's global beeped.

"Sandoval."

"It's Corporal Roberts, sir. I'm just about to land the shuttle in front of the Embassy."

"Good. We'll meet you out there," Sandoval replied, and shut his global again, turning to Kincaid, who was already standing up.

"What about the reporters?" Kincaid asked anxiously.

Sandoval smiled faintly. "I managed to get rid of them on the way in," he answered. They hadn't been all that happy about it, but Sandoval had long since learned how to insist.

Kincaid looked relieved. "Thank you," he said fervently, as they started out. "I really didn't feel up to dealing with them right now."

"You and me both, Major," Sandoval returned. "You and me both."

Half an hour later, they walked into the Seattle PD Forensics Lab. Lieutenant Sally Tanner, the Chief of Forensics, was waiting for them.

"Glad you could make it, gentlemen," she said. "I have something very interesting to show you."

"Oh?" Sandoval inquired.

She held up an evidence bag which held what Sandoval recognized as the scrap of cloth they'd found yesterday.

"I spent all yesterday afternoon working on analysing this," Tanner said. "It's made of some fabric that I've never seen before - fabric with a rather unusual property."

"What?" Kincaid asked from beside him.

"It can apparently block Taelon sensor scans."

Sandoval and Kincaid looked at each other with identical expressions of comprehension on their faces. Well, Sandoval thought, I guess that explains how he or she evaded the sensor scans.

"Were you able to pick up anything off it? DNA fragments or the like?" Kincaid asked.

Tanner shook her head. "Nope. Nothing except dirt from the roof itself. I'd guess that your gunman was wearing gloves and was carrying this material in a bag. Probably took it out when he arrived on the roof. It's likely that as soon as he made the shot, he draped himself in it and took off, but didn't realize that a small corner got caught in the door as he was leaving."

"In other words, a professional, but possibly not very experienced," Sandoval muttered. "Have you been able to trace the material?"

"I'm afraid not, Agent Sandoval. As I said, I've never seen anything like it before. I've asked around, but I doubt that we'll have much luck."

Sandoval nodded slowly. "Did your people or the police manage to discover anything else?"

"No," she replied. "The audience was too panicked for anyone to notice someone slipping out of the building near them, and if your guy is as professional as we think he is, I doubt that he exited through the front anyway. If there's one thing I've learned after five years as Chief of Forensics, it's that someone this good at hiding their tracks is almost impossible to catch."

"Well, we'll see about that," Sandoval declared. "I'll take your analysis to FBI Headquarters, find out if anyone there knows about this fabric. If you discover anything else, please let me know as soon as possible."

"All right, I'll do that," Tanner replied. She picked a folder up off the counter and handed it to Sandoval. "Here you go."

"Thank you," Sandoval said, nodding to her. Then he led Kincaid out.

As they got back into the shuttle, Corporal Roberts turned to face them. "While you were in there, we received a message from the mothership, Major, Agent Sandoval. Zo'or wants to see you."

Sandoval glanced at Kincaid for a moment, and then turned back to the Volunteer. "All right," he said. "In that case, let's go."

"Yes, sir," Roberts replied, as they strapped in. Closing the shuttle, he took off smoothly.

Zo'or and Da'an were waiting for them on the bridge of the mothership. From long experience, Sandoval was able to tell that they'd apparently been arguing about something.

"Agent Sandoval, Major Kincaid," Zo'or greeted them. "Have you discovered anything?"

Sandoval nodded. "Yes, Zo'or," he replied. He held up the report Tanner had given him. "According to Seattle's Chief of Forensics, the scrap of cloth that was found on the scene was made from a fabric that is impenetrable to Taelon sensors. The reason the security sweep didn't pick the gunman up was quite likely because he was wrapped in this fabric." We won't mention the fact that when Kincaid called for the second security sweep, they should have searched the area physically as well, he decided. That bit of information could wait until after he and Kincaid had questioned the Volunteers involved.

Zo'or looked alarmed at that. "You are certain that this is correct?" he demanded. "That our sensors cannot penetrate this fabric?"

"Yes. Their Chief of Forensics is excellent, Zo'or. If she says that Taelon sensors won't penetrate it, they won't."

"I have never heard of any material with this quality," Da'an commented quietly.

"Neither have we," Kincaid said. "Lt. Tanner said that she was going to look into it for us, see if she could find out where it came from."

"And I will have the FBI look into it as well," Sandoval added.

"Good," Zo'or replied. He walked over to the command chair and sat down.

"Is there anything else, Zo'or?" Sandoval asked.

"Yes," Zo'or replied, "there is. I have re-scheduled my meeting with Si'al and the African premier; it is to take place in one hour. Major Kincaid will accompany me. Agent Sandoval, you will continue to work on this investigation."

Catching the look Da'an gave Zo'or, Sandoval realized that this was what the two Taelons had been arguing about. That wasn't much of a surprise; Kincaid was injured, and - strictly speaking - shouldn't really be on duty, much less acting as Protector, until he was healed.

"Are you sure, Zo'or?" he asked. "Perhaps it might be better if I were to accompany you. Major Kincaid could remain here and concentrate on the investigation." He could re-schedule his appointment with Dr. Curzon to this afternoon. She'd understand.

"Major Kincaid will accompany me," Zo'or said flatly.

Sandoval looked between the two of them. Ever since that near-disastrous interview two weeks ago, Zo'or appeared to be trusting Kincaid more and more. A good thing for the Resistance, he supposed, but Sandoval wasn't sure that he liked it that much. The way Zo'or was behaving, it was almost as though he was thinking of taking Kincaid away from Da'an, and making the Major his own Protector instead.

I wonder if this was why he was so agreeable about granting me a vacation...

"Of course, Zo'or," Kincaid replied obediently. "I have already been assigned a pilot until I heal, so we can leave as soon as I do a security review. I don't believe it will take more than ten to fifteen minutes."

"Excellent," Zo'or said, sounding quite pleased. "I will meet you at your shuttle then, Major."

Kincaid nodded and left the bridge. Sandoval stayed where he was, in the hopes of hearing a bit about whatever Zo'or was planning for the Major.

Leaning back in the command chair, Zo'or turned to face him. "That will be all, Agent Sandoval," he said firmly.

Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Sandoval gritted his teeth and nodded. "I will be in my office if you need me," he said, and walked out.

I might as well get started on doing some digging into the Volunteers' personnel files. If any of them do have a connection to the gunman, we really need to find out as soon as possible.

And while I'm at it, I think I'll also do a bit more checking around... see if I can find out a few other things.

Liam paused in the middle of the corridor as his global beeped, and then slipped into one of the many alcoves in that part of the ship. Opening the global, he nodded as Augur's face appeared.

"Have you found anything?" he asked.

"Yes," came Augur's reply. "Nothing that'll help you find out who this guy is, though. According to the sensor logs, both sweeps were done, and done very thoroughly. I can't see how anyone could have gotten past them."

Liam opened his mouth to respond, and then stopped as he heard another voice. "Is someone there with you, Augur?"

"Yeah... Renee's here," the computer wizard replied. "Why?"

"I've got some information I'd like the two of you to check out," Liam replied.

A moment later, Renee appeared next to Augur on the screen. "What is it?"

"We've found out why the gunman didn't appear on the sensors," he said.

Augur blinked. "You did? Why? How did he do it?"

"We found a scrap of fabric at the scene," Liam explained. "Lieutenant Tanner, the Chief of Forensics for the Seattle PD, says that she's never seen anything like it before. Apparently, it's absolutely impenetrable to Taelon scans."

Renee's eyes widened in shock. "What? How the hell could someone get hold of that? It's under security so tight that not even a mouse should be able to get in without the alarms going off!"

Liam froze.

All right... I know Doors doesn't trust me - he's never trusted me, not since before I was born... and I know that Renee's been uncomfortable around me since I told her about my parents...

But if Doors International has come up with some sort of material that blocks Taelon sensor scans, they should have let me know! I am the leader of the Resistance - what's left of it, anyway - and this fabric could be a godsend for us!

I can't believe they didn't let me know!

"Are you telling me," he said carefully, "that you know what this fabric is?"

"It's a new project that Doors International has been working on," Renee replied, either not hearing or - more likely - ignoring the anger in his voice. "But it's under such tight security that no one should have been able to get at it. Maybe someone else has developed something that works the same way," she added hopefully.

"Tell you what," Liam said, trying very hard to control his temper. "I've got to accompany Zo'or to Africa; when I get back, I'll bring you a copy of the forensics analysis, and you can tell me whether or not it is the material Doors has been working on. Then, if it is, you can go find out exactly how someone who took a shot at Zo'or got his hands on it." And then, after that, you can explain to me exactly how many other projects you and Doors are keeping from me.

Hearing footsteps getting closer to the alcove he was in, he gave Renee a frown and then turned his attention back to Augur. "Thanks for the info, Augur; at the very least, it'll help us eliminate some lines of investigation. I've got to go now; like I said, I'll see you after I get back from Africa."

Closing his global, he slipped out of the alcove and continued toward the security office.

Renee walked into Doors' office and stopped in front of his desk, looking at him.

"Yes, Renee?" Doors asked after a moment, not looking up.

"Did you hear about what happened yesterday?" Renee demanded.

At that, Doors did look up. "Liam got shot," he replied calmly. "It wasn't serious, and Dr. Park informed me that he has already returned to duty. In spite of her advice."

"According to Liam, two security sweeps didn't pick up the gunman. One was done just about ten minutes before the attack itself. The sensors then somehow managed to miss the gunman's escape completely," Renee told him.

"That's nice," Doors returned, his tone saying that he couldn't care less. "Look, Renee, you should know perfectly well that I don't care if Zo'or ends up dead."

"Neither do I," Renee replied with a shrug. "But the point I'm trying to make, Jonathan, is that none of the sensors picked this guy up. Liam says a scrap of fabric was recovered at the scene, and that the forensics chief told him and Sandoval that this fabric is impenetrable to Taelon sensors."

Doors stared at her for a moment, finally reacting to what she was saying. "Are you trying to tell me that someone has actually used the vaile?"

"I don't know," Renee said. "Liam is going to be bringing me a copy of the forensics report when he gets back from escorting Zo'or to Africa, or wherever it is they're going. I'm hoping that it will turn out to be just a coincidence, but I'm worried that someone might have managed to get access to the vaile. If so, that means our security is thoroughly compromised, again. Liam is being forced to deal with one of our security breaches, again. I promised him after the fiasco with the Mneme machines that I'd tighten security on all our projects. He's not going to be happy."

Doors frowned. "Frankly, I don't give a damn about whether Liam is happy or not," he retorted. "But if we've had a security breach... get to the lab; find out if any is missing."

Renee nodded. "And what should I tell Liam?"

"Only what he needs to know," Doors snapped.

"Damn it, Jonathan. I'm tired of you putting me in this position," she said. "He's going to want reasons for why he wasn't told about the vaile from the beginning."

Doors sighed. "I have no doubt that he knows exactly why we kept it from him, Renee," he replied. "He isn't stupid. If need be, tell him that we wanted to make sure it actually worked correctly before offering it to the Resistance. After all, the effect is only temporary at present."

"Fine," Renee said. "Just make sure that all the records read that way as well. Augur wasn't any more pleased about this than Liam."

Doors nodded and returned his attention to his screen in an obvious dismissal.

Sighing, Renee left the office and headed for the executive elevator. Getting in, she punched a code on the keypad, and let the elevator whisk her down to the laboratory level - silently dreading what she would find.

Liam sighed as he listened to the discussion between Si'al - the Egyptian Companion - Zo'or, and the African premier. Si'al's Protector, Colonel Ahmid, looked almost as bored as he felt.

Meetings, meetings, meetings. When there wasn't something else going on that demanded his attention, or the possibility of a security threat, being a Companion-Protector could be one of the dullest jobs on Earth. Liam found these diplomatic meetings to be particularly boring, even if his being present for them had occasionally resulted in useful information for the Resistance.

Of course, most jobs are boring in some way or another, Liam reflected, shifting his weight a bit. His shoulder was starting to hurt again, as the painkillers he'd taken earlier wore off. He shot a surreptitious glance at his watch, and groaned silently when he saw the time. Ten-thirty. He couldn't take the next dose of painkillers for another half-hour... longer if the meeting didn't end before then.

Great, he thought sourly. If the painkillers were constantly going to wear off before he was allowed to take the next dose, the next few weeks were going to be exceedingly unpleasant.

It would be even more unpleasant if he and Sandoval couldn't find the gunman.

Then, suddenly, Zo'or was starting to stand up, and Liam realized that the meeting was over. It looked as though he wasn't going to have to wait to take the painkillers after all.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Premier," Zo'or said politely. He nodded to the Egyptian Companion. "Si'al."

"Zo'or," Si'al replied, nodding back.

"Come, Major," Zo'or continued, as he started for the entrance.

Liam trailed behind him, firmly pushing down his irritation at being spoken to like a well-trained dog. A large part of that irritation was simply a reaction to the pain he was experiencing; by now, he should be accustomed to the fact that that was how Zo'or saw all Companion-Protectors.

They had exited the Embassy and were starting around back, heading to the shuttle, when an energy bolt abruptly hit the ground in front of Zo'or.

Shit!

Liam reacted immediately, pushing Zo'or down behind a small clump of bushes that grew at the edge of the Embassy's lawn. He ignored the pain in his shoulder, concentrating on trying to locate where the attack was coming from as more energy bolts splattered around them.

He put his gun down on the ground for a moment and reached for his global - but before he got it open, the shuttle swooped over them.

Good going, Roberts! Liam thought. Grabbing up his gun again, he peered over the top of the bushes and the scant cover they provided and fired in the general direction he thought the shots were coming from. He couldn't aim very well using his left hand, but hopefully it would help keep their attacker pinned until they managed to get to the shuttle.

The shuttle landed just behind them, and Liam turned slightly to look at Zo'or. "Go!" he ordered.

Zo'or nodded and hurried toward the shuttle, keeping low. Liam followed him, dodging the shots that spattered the ground at his feet.

He flung himself into the shuttle, biting his lower lip as the impact jarred his collarbone. "Get us out of here!" he ordered.

Roberts didn't bother to respond out loud - his attention was all for the controls as they took off.

Pushing himself off the floor of the shuttle with his left hand, Liam winced and sat down in his seat, securing himself in. Dr. Park was going to be furious if he'd done any additional damage.

However, at the moment, he had more important things to concern himself with. "Roberts, did you get anything on the sensors?"

"No sir," Roberts replied. "The first indication I had that there was a problem was when the sensors picked up the energy bolts."

Liam nodded. Obviously, this was the same man who had shot at Zo'or yesterday - well, either that, or Renee and Doors were going to be in a hell of a lot more trouble than they were at the moment. "Quick thinking, bringing the shuttle around."

"Thank you, sir," Roberts replied. "I notified the mothership as soon as I saw what was happening," he added.

"Good job," Liam said, leaning back in his seat. Then he glanced over at Zo'or.

The Taelon did not look pleased; and yet, at the same time, Liam thought he caught a hint of satisfaction in Zo'or's manner - something that didn't exactly go with just having been shot at.

"Are you all right, Zo'or?" he asked. "None of the bolts hit you, did they?"

"I am fine, Major," came the calm reply.

Liam studied him for a moment longer, then gave up. Between the pain and the other problems occupying his mind, he wasn't up to figuring out what Zo'or was up to just at the moment.

And, speaking of other problems... Liam thought, how on earth did this guy know where Zo'or was?

Sandoval sat down on the examination table and waited patiently as Dr. Curzon scanned the results of the blood test she'd just run.

"Well, Agent Sandoval, I'm glad to report that you're doing fine," she said after a few minutes. "There don't seem to be any complications from the treatment."

"Good," Sandoval replied. He paused for a moment, and then took the plunge. "Dr. Curzon... there's something I need to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"The blood that... my son's blood. You mentioned that there were some gene oddities that the sequencer wasn't able to identify. What sort of oddities?"

Dr. Curzon frowned. "I'm not certain," she replied. "The report just mentioned the oddities, and I'm not enough of a geneticist to be able to identify them."

"Is there any way you can find out?" Sandoval demanded.

"Why?" she asked.

Sandoval took a deep breath and thought for a moment. Should he trust her?

Well, he'd trusted her quite a bit already; and so far, she hadn't betrayed anything he'd asked her to keep confidential. "I'm trying to find him," he admitted. "I was thinking that if I knew what those genetic oddities were, it might help in that search."

Curzon looked at him for a minute, and then nodded. "I kept a sample - all of what we didn't need for the treatment. There is someone who might be able to isolate and identify the oddities for you."

"Do it," Sandoval ordered. "But keep my name out of it - I don't want anyone finding out what's going on."

"All right. I'll let you know as soon as I get some results," she added.

"Thank you, Doctor," Sandoval said. "I... This means a great deal to me."

"Yes, I can see that," Curzon replied as Sandoval got off the table and pulled his jacket back on. He started for the door; but before he got there, she called out to him, "For what it's worth, Ron, once you find him, I think you'll make a great father."

A great father, Sandoval thought grimly, as he sat down in the shuttle. His pilot, Volunteer Nadine Brant, started powering it up, but he didn't pay any attention. That's... well, it's not funny - it's ironic. Tragically ironic. All the things I've done in service to the Taelons... what I did to Marquette... and Dr. Curzon thinks I'll be a good father?! I'll be lucky if the boy is even willing to see me once I find him!

Actually, that last thought wasn't really fair, Sandoval admitted to himself. The photos he'd been given suggested that his son would be willing to meet him; perhaps even wanted to meet him. But could a child really comprehend what he had done?

Think positive, Sandoval. Or, if you can't manage that, think of something else.

Major Kincaid, for instance.

Before he'd come down for his appointment with Dr. Curzon, he'd pulled the files on the Volunteers in Lt. Dietz's squad - including Corporal Roberts. Then, in the middle of doing that, he'd also managed to pull down what information both the FBI database and the Taelon mainframe had on one Major Liam Neville Kincaid.

It had made for a fairly slim file.

There was plenty of information - some of it heavily classified - about his various missions before and during the S.I. War; he'd received a number of citations and commendations throughout his military career. And there was a large amount of information on his activities since becoming Da'an's Companion-Protector (although there was nothing in the official files about his ties to the Resistance).

But there was absolutely nothing in there about what he'd been doing between the S.I. War and when he had become Da'an's Protector; and in terms of his personal life... the file contained his date of birth, his parents' names, the city he was born in, and his past and current addresses. And that was it. Sandoval knew more about the man's personal life than what was in that file - though not much more.

It wasn't enough.

He was going to have to resolve this somehow. Between his ties to Da'an and to the Resistance, Kincaid could be a very valuable asset. But not if Sandoval couldn't trust him. And so far, aside from saving his life a few times in the line of duty, Kincaid hadn't really given him any reasons to trust.

So, what now?

Before he could come up with an answer to that question, his global beeped.

Opening it, Sandoval was surprised to see Da'an's face. "Yes, Da'an?"

"Agent Sandoval, please return to the mothership at once," Da'an ordered.

Sandoval nodded to the Volunteer piloting him, and then returned his attention to his global. "Is something wrong, Da'an?"

The Taelon hesitated for a moment, and then shook his head. "Return to the mothership, Agent Sandoval," he repeated, and Sandoval's global went dark.

As soon as Volunteer Brant set the shuttle down, Sandoval got out of his seat. He hurried out of the shuttle bay and headed straight for the bridge. Something was wrong - something that Da'an didn't want to risk discussing on an open channel of communication.

He walked on to the bridge, and stopped.

Zo'or was seated in the command chair, looking... upset. Volunteer Corporal Roberts was behind him, and Major Kincaid was sitting at a console, his face pale and lined with pain. Da'an was hovering around Kincaid, his expression concerned.

"What happened?" Sandoval demanded.

Kincaid looked over toward him. "He tried again."

Sandoval blinked. "What?"

"The assassin was waiting for us when we left the African Embassy," Zo'or replied. "If not for Major Kincaid and Volunteer Roberts, I would have died."

"He was using energy bolts this time," Kincaid added, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "And it was the same guy - the shuttle's sensors couldn't detect him."

Sandoval's mouth tightened. This was not good. Not good at all. "Energy bolts?" he repeated.

Kincaid nodded slightly, and then winced in pain. "Yes," he replied instead.

"What I wish to know is how this person knew that we were there," Zo'or commented.

"Me too," Kincaid added. "The exact time of the meeting wasn't re-scheduled until this morning, right?"

"That is correct," Da'an said. A faint grimace crossed his face, but Sandoval was the only one who saw, as both Kincaid and Zo'or were looking at him. "Zo'or was most insistent that you be able to accompany him, Liam."

Zo'or looked irritated at this revelation; Kincaid looked surprised.

Sandoval decided to intervene before Da'an and Zo'or got too angry at each other. "Who else knew of the change in schedule?"

"The four of us, Si'al, Colonel Ahmid, the Colonel's pilot, the African premier and his chief of staff," Zo'or replied.

"As well as the Volunteers who were present on the bridge when the meeting was re-scheduled," Da'an pointed out.

"And whoever else any of them might have told," Kincaid added, his tone despairing.

Sandoval shot him an glare, irritated at the younger man's pessimism, and then moderated it a bit when he noticed that the Major looked to be in definite pain. He returned his attention to the two Taelons for a moment. "That will at least give us a start," he said firmly. "Major?"

Kincaid stood up gingerly, his right arm braced not only by the sling he was wearing, but also by his left hand.

"Report as soon as you find anything, Agent Sandoval," Zo'or ordered as they left the bridge.

"What happened?" Sandoval asked, as they started along the corridor toward his office.

"I pushed Zo'or down to avoid the first shot, and then ended up flinging myself into the shuttle, and hitting the floor," Kincaid replied. He winced. "I'm hoping that I didn't do any more damage - that it's mostly the fact that I need another dose of painkillers - or Dr. Park is going to have my head."

"Once we get to my office I'll get you some water," Sandoval said.

Liam sank down gratefully into a chair as soon as they entered Sandoval's office. His shoulder and collarbone were throbbing painfully; had been since he'd ended up on the floor of the shuttle.

"Here," Sandoval said, handing him a glass of water. Liam leaned forward carefully and put the glass on Sandoval's desk, then pulled the bottle of pills from his pocket.

Sandoval plucked it out of his hand. "How many do you need, Major?"

Liam blinked up at him, surprised. "Three," he replied after a moment.

Sandoval opened the bottle, took three out and handed them to him, then closed the bottle and put it down on his desk.

"Thanks," Liam said quietly, before putting the pills into his mouth and taking a sip of water.

Sandoval gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement and sat down behind his desk. "I've already pulled the files on Lieutenant Dietz's squad," he said. "There are a few things I think we need to look into. Then we'll check the security records to find out which Volunteers were on the bridge this morning when Zo'or made the re-scheduling arrangements."

"Sounds good," Liam agreed.

Then his global beeped. Opening it up, he was surprised to see Renee.

"Liam, I need to talk to you," she said.

Liam shot a quick glance at his father and silently debated what to do. Going strictly by the rules, he should really tell Sandoval about Doors International's possible involvement; but at the same time, he didn't want to expose Renee. "What can I do for you, Ms. Palmer?"

He saw the realization in her face that he wasn't alone. "If we could meet at your earliest convenience?"

Sounds like it was Doors' material... "All right; I'll call you when I'm available," Liam said, and closed his global.

Sandoval didn't ask any questions, which was a relief - although Liam wasn't sure whether it was because he was just being polite, or because he felt he didn't need to. Instead, he asked, "Why do you think our man switched to energy bolts?"

"I don't know," Liam replied with a sigh. "If my theory about the first attack being a warning was correct, the only thing I can come up with is that he realized Zo'or wouldn't take a warning. Other than that..."

"Or perhaps it wasn't meant as a warning," Sandoval said. "It does seem fairly obvious that Zo'or is the target; if it was one of the other people on the dais with you yesterday, the gunman wouldn't have attacked you this morning. Any other theories?"

Liam shook his head slowly. "None that I can think of right now."

"Then for the moment, let's concentrate on who might be leaking information." Sandoval passed five of the files on his desk over to Liam. "If anything jumps out at you, we'll call them in immediately."

Liam nodded and settled down in the chair. It was going to be a long day.

Dr. Curzon knocked firmly on the door.

"Come in!" called a voice.

Opening the door, Curzon peered in, making sure that her fellow physician was alone. Ascertaining that she was, Curzon walked in. "Hi, Julianne."

Dr. Julianne Belman, one of the premier microbiologists and neurosurgeons in the world, looked up from the screen she was studying. "Alice! Good to see you. How've you been?"

"Well enough," Curzon replied. She hesitated for a moment.

Dr. Belman spun around to face her. "Come on, out with it," she ordered gently.

Curzon held out the tiny vial of blood she'd kept from the mysterious donation that had saved Sandoval's life. "I've got a favour to ask of you. I want to know about this sample. I put it through the DNA sequencer, but it couldn't give me a full analysis - said there were some gene oddities it couldn't process."

"And you want me to take a look at it," Belman finished.

"If you could, I would definitely appreciate it," Curzon told her. "It's for a patient of mine - and it's rather important."

"All right," Belman said. She took the vial and looked at it. "I can't promise you an immediate answer - I've got something I'm working on right now - but I should be able to give you an analysis within two to three days."

"That would be fine," Curzon replied. "Thanks, Julianne."

"You'll just have to owe me one," Belman countered, grinning. "I'll see you later."

Liam blinked and rubbed his tired eyes with his left hand. He was exhausted and sore, and the past two hours of reading files hadn't helped any - especially when he hadn't found anything worth mentioning.

And the painkillers hadn't worked very well. He had the uncomfortable feeling that he had done some more damage to his shoulder when he'd dived into the shuttle, and he wasn't looking forward to telling Dr. Park about it.

"Found anything?" Sandoval asked.

"No, not a thing," Liam replied, sighing. He rubbed his right palm absently. "There's absolutely nothing here to suggest that any of them would be involved in something like this. They've all shown themselves to be loyal to the Taelons; no recent problems, either job-related or otherwise... There's nothing." He tossed the last file - Sergeant Barry Nicholls' - back on to Sandoval's desk and sighed again. "What about you?"

"I haven't found anything either." Sandoval leaned back in his chair and studied Liam for a moment. "You look like you could use a break, Major. You might want to check in with Dr. Park - have her take another look at your shoulder."

Liam rubbed his eyes again. "You sure? I mean, you're really supposed to be on vacation, Sandoval. I should be handling this--"

"Major... Liam," Sandoval interrupted, and Liam's head came up. Sandoval rarely called him by name, and almost never called him 'Liam'. "You're wounded, and, as Dr. Park and Da'an said yesterday, you are in no condition to handle heading up this investigation. Yes, I don't care for the fact that this interrupted my vacation, but I'd prefer to have no vacation and have you get better quickly than to take my vacation and come back to find that you'll be out for two or three months."

Liam stared, astonished by the open statement of concern.

"So why don't you pay a visit to the doctor, and then take the rest of the day off to rest," Sandoval continued. "All we would be doing for the next several hours is going through files and questioning the Volunteers, and I believe I'm capable of handling that well enough by myself," he added sardonically.

Should I? I think I do need to see Dr. Park - and I also want to find out what Renee's got, which I can't do while Sandoval's around...

"All right," Liam agreed after a moment. "But if you find anything, you'll let me know, right?"

"Of course."

Liam managed a smile as he stood up. "In that case, I guess I will go see Dr. Park. If nothing else happens, I'll meet you back here in the morning, okay?"

Sandoval nodded, dismissing him, and turned his attention back to the files he'd been going through.

Leaving Sandoval's office, Liam opened his global and called Roberts to ask the pilot to take him back to Washington. Once that was done, he braced himself mentally and called Dr. Park.

"Yes?" she answered, and then frowned when she saw that it was Liam calling. "What's wrong, Liam?"

"There was another attack on Zo'or," Liam replied. "I took a dive into our shuttle, and I think that I might have... well... done a bit more damage when I hit the floor."

Dr. Park sighed. "Where are you now?"

"On the mothership. Sandoval's ordered me to take the rest of the day off and to see you, so I'm coming back down in a few minutes."

"All right... Come to my office as soon as you get down here, and I'll see about getting you patched back up again."

Closing his global, Liam headed for the shuttle bay and found Cpl. Roberts already there, waiting for him.

"You can just take me down to the Embassy, and then have the rest of the day off, unless something comes up," Liam told him as he sat down in the passenger seat.

Roberts gave him a curious look.

"I seem to have done a bit more damage to my shoulder during the attack this morning, so my orders for the rest of the day are to see the doctor and then take it easy," Liam explained. "And since Agent Sandoval's assigned you as my pilot, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have the rest of the day off as well."

Michael Roberts was a bit surprised by Major Kincaid's generosity. "But what if something happens?" he countered. There had already been two attacks on Zo'or so far, and if another one happened, the Major would need to have a shuttle available.

"If anything happens I'll call you to come pick me up," the Major replied. "But other than that, do take the rest of the day off. You earned it with that maneuver this morning."

Roberts flushed. Major Kincaid was an excellent pilot, one of the very best - the only one better had been Captain Marquette. For the Major to compliment him on his flying... "Thank you, sir."

"Like I said, you earned it," Kincaid said firmly.

Roberts turned his attention to the controls. With Major Kincaid on board, he wanted to ensure an absolutely smooth ride.

The appointment with Dr. Park had gone... well, it hadn't been too bad. She'd been upset with him, but the damage hadn't been too serious - he'd made the collarbone fracture a bit worse, but not too much so. She'd given him a stronger sling, increased the painkiller dosage to four tablets for the next two days, and told him to make sure that he didn't go hitting any more floors until he was completely healed. Then, after a moment's thought, she'd added a brace for his collarbone - because, according to her, she doubted that he'd follow her advice.

As soon as she finished with him, he called Renee and told her to meet him at the church.

When Liam got there, he found Augur absorbed in what looked like a computer game, and no sign of Renee.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"I assume you're talking about Renee... And the answer is, how would I know?" Augur countered irritably, looking up from his computer. "Did you tell her that you were going to meet her here?"

"Of course I did," Liam replied, equally irritated - although not at Augur. "Besides, she was the one who wanted to meet me."

Augur nodded, then swiveled his chair around to face Liam. "Let me guess - about the sensor-impenetrable material, right?"

Liam nodded. "That's my guess, at least," he added quickly.

"Seems reasonable, considering that - according to the computers at Doors International - she filed a report a few hours ago about a top-secret project that had gone missing," Augur commented.

Liam sat down on the couch. "You hacked into Doors International? Don't you remember what happened the last time you did that?" Augur was still having the occasional fit about having to sell his paintings - and, of course, Renee never helped when the subject came up in her presence.

"I never get caught by the same thing twice, Liam," Augur declared arrogantly. "Besides, she expected me to do it."

Liam blinked in confusion. "She did?"

Augur nodded. "I would guess that she was the one who told Doors that he'd better change some of the documentation on this material of theirs - it's called 'vaile', by the way - to fit in with whatever story she's going to give you about it."

"Veil?" Liam repeated.

"Spelled v-a-i-l-e," Augur said. "Stands for some silly acronym that was probably created for the sole purpose of having a name that sounded like 'veil': Variable Amplitude Impedance of Life-form Emissions."

"Huh?"

"Like I said, it's silly. In fact, I'll bet you anything that Doors came up with it." Augur turned back to his computer. "Lucky for us, however, he isn't as good as Renee at covering his tracks."

"Then why didn't she do it?" Liam asked.

Augur shrugged. "Haven't a clue. If I had to guess, though, I'd say either she was too busy dealing with the theft itself to bother, or she's playing some kind of deeper game. Either way, there was some very interesting stuff left on there that Doors probably thinks he's managed to delete."

"Like what?" Liam asked, not getting up from the couch. He was still feeling tired.

"For instance, apparently the shielding effect of the vaile is only temporary," Augur answered. "Depending on the strength of the sensors applied to it, the effect lasts from about five minutes to half an hour; no longer."

Five minutes to half an hour. Even one minute could make a huge difference in the middle of a firefight. "Do you have any idea which sensors work best at defeating it?" Liam demanded.

Augur grinned, his expression one of glee. "That's the part that I think Doors is going to be most upset at not having deleted properly. A shuttle's sensors can detect it within ten minutes; less if the person operating them knows what he's looking for."

Liam stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of Augur, his exhaustion suddenly less important than his frustration. "In other words," he growled, "we would have had him already if Doors and Renee had bothered to mention this 'vaile' to me!"

"You would have what?" Augur demanded, alarmed. "What do you mean, you would have had him?"

"We were attacked when we were leaving the African Embassy earlier," Liam replied, still pacing. "He was waiting for us. And this time, he used energy bolts - which means that it's just gotten even more serious."

"Liam, bullets are serious," Augur said firmly. "They may not be able to kill Taelons, but they can kill you - or Sandoval," he added pointedly.

Liam waved his hand distractedly. "Using energy bolts means that he wants to kill Zo'or, not just warn him. This guy is really playing with fire, Augur. We've got to stop him before he accomplishes his goal."

The sound of the elevator descending cut him off, and he waited impatiently for it to stop. The doors opened, and Renee walked out.

"Well?" Liam demanded.

Renee looked a bit puzzled.

"You said you needed to see me as soon as possible," Liam continued irritably. "I've been waiting here for the past quarter of an hour, and all I really want to do is go home and get some rest. So why don't you tell me what you found out?"

Renee sighed as she came further into the room. She nodded a greeting to Augur, and then turned to face Liam directly. "A large quantity of the experimental material disappeared from a top-secret lab sometime over the past three days," she declared.

"So I guess you won't need the forensics report," Liam put in.

"No; unfortunately, it looks like it was definitely ours," Renee admitted. "I've got our security people working on discovering exactly how this happened."

"Well, you'd better hope they find something," Liam snapped. "This guy has had two shots already; I don't want him having any more!"

"Two?" Renee asked, looking surprised.

"Africa this morning, when Zo'or and I were leaving the Embassy," Liam replied shortly. "So, what are this material's weaknesses? How can we get past it?"

"Like I said, it's currently only in the experimental stages, which is why I've never mentioned it," Renee said.

Right, Liam thought grimly. And if you expect me to believe that, you know me even less than you think you do. "Go on."

"The material's effect is, unfortunately, only temporary at the moment - our scientists and technicians have managed to get it to the point where it will take about half an hour or so for Taelon sensors to detect and penetrate it - which is the other reason for not telling you about it. It won't do the Resistance much good until we can get the vaile's effect to last up to an hour."

"Vaile?" Liam repeated curiously, his tone innocent. No point letting Renee know that Augur had already gotten hold of this information.

"That's what the techs call it. It's an acronym for something or other."

"And what about its weak--" Liam started.

"Unfortunately, there's not much else I can tell you right now," Renee continued, ignoring his question. "I just wanted to give you the information, and assure you that we have got our best security people on it. As soon as I find out anything else, I'll let you know."

"Good," Liam said. He was astonished at how calm he had managed to sound, considering how furious he was.

Then again, considering the sheer number of times I've been betrayed by people - the number of times I've been betrayed by Doors and Renee - I suppose I've had lots of practice.

"So, have you managed to find anything new?" Renee asked.

"No."

"You'll let me know if something turns up?"

Liam just looked at her. "I'm sure you'll hear about anything we find." One way or another.

"Well, I've got to get back to work. The sooner we find out who did this, the better," Renee said, obviously realizing that Liam wasn't in the mood to talk to her. "We've got to stop this guy and get the vaile back before he alarms the Taelons too much."

"Too late," Liam muttered, as he watched her walk into the elevator.

As soon as it had started back up, he turned to Augur.

"I need you to make copies of those files you got from Doors International," Liam said. "The technical information about how to use the sensors to defeat the vaile's effect."

"Why?"

Liam thought for a moment before he answered. He wasn't sure how Augur would react - but he didn't want to lie. Not to Augur. Their relationship had been damaged by Augur's betrayal of the Resistance, but he was still, in many ways, the big brother Liam didn't really have. "For Sandoval," he replied after a moment.

"What?"

"Just in case," Liam elaborated. "If we get lucky, he'll never see it; but if things continue to go wrong, I want to have the information available so that I can give it to him if I think it's necessary."

Augur studied him for a moment, and then nodded. "All right," he said reluctantly. "Just make sure that you don't give it to him unless it's necessary."

"I promise," Liam replied soberly.

Augur worked quickly, getting all the files onto a disk and handing it to Liam. "Now, you should go home and get some rest," he said, eyeing the younger man. "You look terrible."

Liam couldn't help the grin that crossed his face. "Yes, 'Dad'," he replied obediently.

Augur laughed. "Go on, get out of here. And make sure you get some rest!" he added in a shout as Liam entered the elevator.

Dr. Julianne Belman stood up and stretched, wincing as her muscles complained about the length of time she'd been sitting in the chair. The project she was working on at the moment was fascinating, but she needed a break from it for a while.

Glancing around her office, her eyes fell on the portable fridge where she kept samples from various projects. The blood sample Alice Curzon had asked her to check out was there; it might just provide the break she was looking for. And getting it done so quickly could only enhance her reputation as a miracle worker.

She opened the fridge door and took the sample out, grinning. Alice Curzon had interned under her several years ago, and they'd managed to develop a friendship that had lasted ever since. They didn't get to see each other much any more - Julianne was always busy working on projects for the Taelons, and when she wasn't doing that she was working with the Resistance, and Alice had a full-time position here at Bethesda - but the friendship was still as strong as ever.

She said the DNA sequencer encountered some gene oddities, Belman thought, studying the small vial of blood. Bethesda has some of the most up-to-date equipment there is - but in some areas, I've got better. Genetics is one. So we'll start with my DNA sequencer.

She divided the sample in half and put one half back into the fridge, and the other into the sequencer.

Two minutes later, the results appeared on her screen.

It took Dr. Belman only a moment to recognize what she was looking at.

Oh my god... "Liam?!"

"Corporal Roberts... please, come in," Sandoval said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

Roberts obediently sat down. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, Corporal," Sandoval replied. "I apologize for having to call you back up here for this after Major Kincaid released you from duty for the day, but there are some questions I need to ask you. It shouldn't take very long, and you will be free to go as soon as we are finished.

"You are a member of the squad commanded by Lieutenant Dietz, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"So, you were present during the incident yesterday."

"Yes, sir, I was," Roberts said calmly.

"And what duties were you assigned?" Sandoval asked. He knew the answer, of course, but he wanted Roberts to tell him about what had happened in his own words, and the best way to do that was to lead up to it.

"My job was to handle the communications and help with the sensors in the security station, sir," Roberts replied.

"All right. Now, I'd like to know what happened from the moment your squad arrived in Seattle until after the shooting."

"We arrived about 0800 hours..." Roberts began.

Sandoval tuned him out. Both his CVI and his global were recording this; he'd be able to re-play it anytime. And when Roberts came to the part of his explanation about the search Kincaid had ordered, he'd start listening carefully again. For the moment, though, he had other thoughts to occupy his attention.

Liam Kincaid. The man was an enigma. The more Sandoval dug into his background, the more puzzling he became. The fact that he had disappeared during the S.I. War and that there was no record of him at all until his reappearance at Boone's funeral should have, at the very least, raised some eyebrows. Yet nobody had ever questioned - or even mentioned - it. Why? And what had he been up to during that time?

Within days of his reappearance, Kincaid had been firmly ensconced as Da'an's Protector. Why?

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Kincaid's sympathies had been with the Liberation since the beginning; Sandoval had no doubt that it was Kincaid who had drawn Da'an toward the Resistance.

On the other hand, there was definitely friction between Kincaid and Doors.

How had a man who was so at odds with the leader of the former Liberation movement become so well-established in the Resistance? Based on the information Sandoval had, the Major was, at the very least, the leader of the Washington cell... and possibly even the leader of the entire Resistance.

It didn't add up.

Resistance cell leaders were paranoid as a way of life; they had to be in order to survive. So how did someone with such huge gaps in his background - and who was as dedicated a Companion-Protector as Kincaid - become so trusted?

And for that matter, why had Da'an trusted him enough from their very first meeting to insist that Kincaid be made his Protector? Da'an had essentially offered Zo'or the opportunity to let the Jaridian replicant kill him in exchange for gaining Zo'or's support for that move. And Da'an and Kincaid had been close since the beginning, although Sandoval had noticed that their relationship had been getting more and more strained since the crackdown.

Then his ears caught the word 'shuttle', and he returned his attention to Roberts, putting aside those thoughts for later contemplation.

"...Then the shuttle arrived. Major Kincaid spoke to Lieutenant Dietz for a minute or two, and then Da'an and Zo'or came out and were greeted by Dr. Hutchinson," Roberts was saying. "I was working on communications, and Sergeant Tsue was keeping an eye on the sensors.

"About three minutes after they arrived, Major Kincaid hooked into the communications net and requested a security check. The Sergeant and I set the scanners for an overlapping grid pattern - just in case one of us missed something - and did a thorough sensor sweep."

"What about Lieutenant Dietz and the rest of the squad? Did they conduct a physical sweep?" Sandoval asked.

Roberts frowned at that. "I... don't know, sir. I assumed that they had, because when I checked with the Lieutenant, she gave the all clear, but I don't know for certain. She may have thought that there was no real point, since they'd just finished a physical sweep fifteen minutes before, and the sensors should have picked it up if anything had changed."

Sandoval nodded. "Then what happened?"

"After I received the all clear from Lieutenant Dietz, I informed Major Kincaid that the sweep had found nothing unusual. He seemed to be very relieved at that, but told me to keep my eyes open anyway. I did - both Tsue and I kept a close watch on the sensors - but the first thing we knew about what was going on was when the Major yelled that there was a sniper.

"We thought, since we hadn't picked anything up on the sensors, that he might have been just beyond their range, but also that he might pass through them while trying to make his escape, so we increased the power to the sensors and focused them on the area that the bullet had come from. But we didn't find anything."

"And what about this morning?" Sandoval asked. "What happened in Africa?"

"Again, sir, I didn't realize anything was wrong until the first energy blast. I'd gotten a head's up from one of the Volunteers assigned to the Embassy that the meeting was ending, so I was powering everything up, and then I heard the shooting. It wasn't hard to figure out what was going on, so I called the mothership to alert them, and then decided it might be a good idea to bring the shuttle over, just in case the Major needed some help in defending Zo'or.

"I brought the shuttle around the Embassy and found Major Kincaid and Zo'or behind some of the bushes they've got planted in the front. The Major was trying to fire at whoever was shooting at them, but he wasn't having much luck. Then, when he saw me in the shuttle, he got Zo'or to run over, and followed, laying down covering fire. As soon as they were both in, I got us out of there."

"Yes, so Major Kincaid told me," Sandoval said, leaning back in his chair and studying Roberts. "He was impressed with the way you handled the shuttle."

Roberts flushed slightly. "I'm not nearly as good a pilot as the Major is, sir."

"Perhaps not; however, Major Kincaid obviously considers your skills to be more than merely adequate.

"Did you see any sign of the attacker?"

Roberts looked momentarily confused at the sudden switch from complimenting his skills back to the interrogation, and then shook his head. "Not really, I'm afraid, sir. To be honest, I was concentrating on my flying. I wanted to make sure that I did a good job and got Zo'or and the Major out of there as soon as possible. All I do know is that it looked like the energy blasts were coming from a window in the building across the street from the Embassy - but that's kind of long range for that sort of weapon."

Sandoval nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you, Corporal Roberts," he said. "That will be all. Enjoy the rest of your day off."

Roberts stood up. "Yes, sir." He started for the door, and then paused. "Agent Sandoval?" he said hesitantly.

"Yes, Corporal?"

"Do you... do you really think that one of us might be involved?"

Sandoval looked at the Volunteer. He appeared to be genuinely concerned, and Sandoval was fairly certain that no one in the squad was involved, but... better to keep them on their toes, just in case. And if he was wrong... well, Sandoval firmly believed in giving people enough rope to hang themselves.

"I don't know, Corporal. That's what I'm trying to find out."

Roberts nodded and left.

Once he was gone, Sandoval relaxed into his chair.

Over the past several hours, he'd interviewed the members of Lt. Dietz's squad that had been sent to Washington with Kincaid when he'd been shot. So far, all of their stories added up. None of them knew why they hadn't done a physical sweep the second time, but all of them thought that Lt. Dietz had probably considered it a waste of time and effort. After all, none of them had really expected anything to happen.

No one had... except Kincaid.

And here we are, back to the puzzle again, Sandoval thought ruefully.

The Major was a skilled soldier, an Army Ranger - one of the elite; it was only to be expected that he would be more aware of his surroundings and have a better sense of danger than the average person. And yet...

Sandoval was reminded of Boone's funeral, and the way Kincaid had tackled Da'an before the Jaridian had fired on Quo'on, or even shown itself. It had been almost as though he had known what was going to happen.

Which is preposterous. I'm obviously too tired to think straight.

So far, none of the channels he'd tried had been able to get him the information he really needed to make his decision about Kincaid, and he'd tried all the official ones he could think of.

It was time to go outside the lines.

Opening his global, he tapped in a number that would link him into a secure communications facility. A moment later, a face appeared on his screen.

"Yes?"

"Andrew, this is Ron. I need you to do a favour for me..."

Liam opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily. He didn't understand what it was about this dream that was disturbing him so much, but it was very definitely causing the terror he was feeling.

Why?

The only tangible thing in the dream was the dark human-shaped figure who...

Liam blinked in surprise as a sudden thought occurred to him. Could he be dreaming about the sniper?

That would certainly explain the feeling of dread that he kept getting. And it would also explain why the figure was faceless - at the moment, they still had no clue as to his identity, much less why he was gunning for Zo'or.

Sitting up gingerly, he shifted his sling to a more comfortable position and rubbed his eyes with his left hand. He hadn't meant to fall asleep when he'd gotten home from his meeting with Augur and Renee, but he must have been too exhausted to avoid it.

So what time is it now?

Glancing at his watch, Liam was surprised to see that it was almost eight o'clock at night.

Picking his global up from his bedside table, he opened it, intending to call Sandoval and get an update. But before he could do that, Augur's face appeared.

"Liam! Good, you're awake. You'd better get down here."

Judging from the noise and decor in the background, Augur was downstairs in the Flat Planet. "Why?" Liam asked. He didn't really feel like dealing with public attention at the moment - and the sling was fairly obvious.

Augur grimaced. "Dr. Belman's here. She wants to speak to you about something."

Dr. Belman? What could she want to talk to me about? "What?"

Augur looked exasperated at that. "How should I know?"

"Didn't she tell you?" Liam asked.

"'Didn't she tell me'," Augur repeated. "Of course she didn't tell me! Look, Liam, why don't you just come down here and talk to her yourself?"

Liam closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his face.

"Liam?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said, sighing. "Tell her I'll be down there in about ten minutes."

Eight minutes later, Augur met Liam at the door to upstairs. He studied his friend critically for a moment.

Despite the fact that he appeared to have gotten some sleep, Liam still looked tired; his hair was tousled, making him appear younger than usual, and his eyes had the bruised look of utter exhaustion.

Augur frowned. "How long did you sleep for?"

"About five hours, more or less," Liam mumbled. "Where is she?"

"In the booth at the far end," Augur said, pointing to one of the private booths where his 'silent' partner was sitting.

Dr. Belman looked up as they arrived at the booth, and frowned at Augur. "Don't you have drinks to sell?" she asked.

Augur gave her a tight smile and sat down next to Liam. He'd promised himself that he would keep an eye on his friend, and he meant to.

"Augur said you wanted to talk to me?" Liam said.

Dr. Belman nodded. "To be more precise, I need to speak with you," she replied.

"About what?"

Her expression serious, Dr. Belman declared, "I need to know how Dr. Alice Curzon got a sample of your blood, Liam."

Looking at Liam, Augur saw his eyes flicker away. "What do you mean?"

Belman looked irritated at that. "Dr. Curzon and I have been casual friends for many years, Liam," she explained. "Generally, when she asks me for a favour, I'm more than happy to comply. This morning, she came into the office I maintain at Bethesda and asked me to take a look at a blood sample, see if I could figure out why the DNA sequencer was encountering what it classified as 'gene oddities'. She said it was very important.

"Earlier this afternoon, I decided to take a break from the project I'm currently working on and check it out. Imagine my surprise when the 'gene oddities' turned out to be Kimera DNA! Your DNA!"

"Doctor Curzon, you said?" Liam asked. If he hadn't known better, Augur might've been taken in by the innocent tone in his friend's voice; but he'd heard Liam use that exact same tone on Renee earlier, when he was pretending that Augur hadn't told him anything about the vaile. Liam knew exactly what this was about.

Belman didn't appear to notice the deception. "Yes. She's a doctor working out of the Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

"Liam, this is serious. We need to know how she got that sample! If the Taelons find out..."

"They won't," Liam said confidently.

Augur looked at him, suspicious. Liam should have been nervous about the very idea of the Taelons getting hold of a blood sample from him. That he wasn't meant...

Wait a minute... Liam's blood?

"Liam," Augur said carefully, "what was the name of Sandoval's doctor?"

Liam's eyes darted to him for a moment, and then away again. It was enough.

"Just over a month and a half ago, Sandoval ended up in hospital, in critical condition," Augur told Belman. Liam was looking down at the tabletop, doodling on the surface with one fingernail. "He had some sort of genetic blood disease. He needed hemologic factor from a first-degree relative - a parent or child. Liam sent in two pints of blood, anonymously."

"Sandoval's parents are dead," Liam put in defensively. "I don't have any brothers or sisters. And he's my father! I couldn't have let him die!"

"I'm not suggesting that you could - or even should - have, Liam," Augur said patiently. Renee's resistance to the very idea - her suggestion that they should concentrate on saving themselves and the Resistance rather than Sandoval - had gotten Liam's back up about his decision, and made him very defensive about the entire matter. "Remember, I helped you arrange it. But if this Dr. Curzon is trying to get an analysis of your blood..."

"I'll have to lie to her," Belman said.

Liam didn't respond.

"The question is, why?" Augur said thoughtfully. "Why does she want to know? Is it just medical curiosity, or is there something else involved?"

"All she told me was that it involved a patient of hers," Belman replied. "Alice believes very strongly in doctor/patient confidentiality; she won't tell me more than that even if I press her. And I don't want to do that."

"In other words, Sandoval might have asked her to have it checked out," Augur concluded.

Belman nodded slowly. "So, what should I tell her?"

There was a pause, and then Liam spoke up. "Can you give me a little while to think about it?" he asked.

"Yes; I told her that I might not be able to get to it for a few days. She said that was fine; she'd just like to know soon."

Liam nodded. "All right. I should have a solution for you some time tomorrow. Now," he added, yawning, "if you'll excuse me, I need to get some more sleep."

Augur watched as he got up and walked over to the door, and then turned back to Belman. "Just how serious is this?"

Belman's mouth tightened. "If the Taelons get hold of that sample? Very. I can't understand why Liam isn't more concerned about this."

Augur shrugged. "Neither can I," he replied. "But I'm going to find out."

Liam slipped out of his shirt and sat down on his bed.

He's looking for me.

It was all he'd been able to think since Dr. Belman had told him what was going on.

He'd been hoping that Sandoval would search for him, but had refused to allow himself to expect it. None of the memories he'd inherited from Sandoval - the ones he'd been able to access, at least - gave any indication of whether his father had wanted children or not. He'd known that his mother did - the longing for children had been a central part of Siobhan Beckett's life - but that hadn't helped him figure out Sandoval's feelings.

Nor had the suggestion that Ha'gel's image had made, when he'd been in that weird psychokinetic dimension - that he'd been the result of a biological imperative, not of a genuine desire for a child.

But Sandoval's search suggested that he did, indeed, want his son.

The question is, will he want me? I doubt that I'm what he's expecting. Maybe I shouldn't have given him those photographs...

Aaarrrgggghh! Stop second-guessing yourself, Liam!

In fact, if he thought about it, Dr. Curzon's effort to find out about the 'gene oddities' in his blood - probably his third strand of DNA, Liam guessed - could be a blessing, if handled the right way. He could have Dr. Belman plant the thought that Sandoval's son might be a hybrid - the truth, although Sandoval and Dr. Curzon would probably think in terms of a Human/Taelon hybrid, not a Human/Kimera one. Sandoval's reaction to that would dictate whether or not Liam continued with his campaign to let his father know who he was.

Satisfied with that decision, Liam lay down and closed his eyes. He'd think about what to have Dr. Belman say tomorrow morning.

Sandoval sat back in his chair, pulled his pocket watch out, and looked at it.

Nine-thirty.

He was tired. The past several months had been hard on him, and his illness had only made everything worse. The only thing that had kept him going - in the beginning, at least - had been the knowledge of how much depended on him doing his job.

Then he'd found out that he had a son, and suddenly the entire equation had changed. The job was no longer the overriding goal in his life; the existence of his son had taken its place. The job had gained in importance - he now had a stake in the results of what he was doing - but if it came down to a choice between his as yet unknown son and the job, the job could go to hell.

Rubbing his forehead, he opened Sergeant Tsue's file and skimmed through it. He'd finished questioning Tsue ten minutes ago, and had spent that time going over his impressions of the man - until his thoughts had gotten side-tracked.

Closing the file - there was nothing there that called attention to itself - Sandoval suddenly noticed a piece of paper on his desk. Picking it up, he was surprised to see that it was a list of the names of the Volunteers in Lt. Dietz's squad, along with their specialties. The scrawled handwriting had a vaguely familiar appearance, but Sandoval couldn't recall where he'd seen in before.

Then, after a minute's thought, he remembered seeing Kincaid using his left hand to write something down when they'd first gone through the files earlier in the day. He'd probably glimpsed the paper, and that was why it looked familiar.

Placing the notes on top of the pile of dossiers, Sandoval stood up and stretched. It had been a very long day, and it was now time for him to go home and get some rest.

Before he reached his office door, however, it opened, revealing Da'an standing in the corridor beyond.

"Da'an? What can I do for you?" Sandoval asked politely. What he really wanted to do was yell at the top of his lungs that he wanted to go home and get some rest, but that was hardly proper behaviour for an Implant.

"Have you found any further clues, Agent Sandoval?" Da'an asked. He sounded worried, Sandoval reflected.

"I'm afraid not, Da'an. I would have informed you and Zo'or immediately if I had. Is there anything else?"

Da'an paused, and then nodded slowly. "Yes, there is. Agent Sandoval, has Zo'or explained his sudden... interest in having Major Kincaid with him?"

Sandoval studied the Taelon thoughtfully for a moment, then shook his head. "No, Da'an, he has not. I assume it is because I am meant to be on vacation, and Zo'or had already arranged for the Major to deal with his schedule."

"Perhaps," Da'an said quietly, looking down. "However, it does not seem reasonable for Zo'or to have insisted that Major Kincaid accompany him this morning. Liam was wounded, and therefore could not be expected to be able to provide full protection."

"But he did," Sandoval pointed out.

"Yes," Da'an agreed, "but Zo'or could not have known this, which makes his insistence... puzzling. He has not shared his reasoning with me."

"Perhaps it is simply that Major Kincaid has proven that he can be trusted to save Zo'or, even at risk to his own life," Sandoval suggested. "First at that interview with Eli Hanson, and then yesterday, at the ceremony."

Da'an looked uncertain. "Perhaps," he repeated. "However, I am concerned. If Zo'or continues with this... insistence, despite Major Kincaid's injury, it becomes more likely that the assassin will succeed; and that both Major Kincaid and Zo'or will embrace the Void.

"My efforts at convincing Zo'or of this fact have, thus far, been unsuccessful. I would appreciate it greatly, Agent Sandoval, if you would attempt to make Zo'or see reason."

Sandoval blinked in surprise. This was something of an... interesting development.

"I can try, Da'an," he replied. "But I think it is unlikely that my efforts will be any more successful than yours. If Zo'or is determined to pursue this course of action, he will not listen to me if I try to deter him."

Da'an's hands moved gracefully. "All I ask is that you try, Agent Sandoval," the Taelon said calmly. "I will see you in the morning." He turned and walked away.

Sandoval watched until Da'an had disappeared around a bend in the corridor, and then heaved a sigh.

How am I supposed to tell Da'an that I think Zo'or intends to 'steal' his Protector? Should I? And is that really what Zo'or wants? Or is he after something completely different?

When exactly did my life get so complicated?

Turning around, Sandoval headed for the mothership portal station. He was going to go home, go to bed, and get a good night's sleep.

He knew that he was definitely going to need it.

Andrew Patterson leaned forward, whistling in surprise as he stared at his screen.

"This isn't possible," he murmured. "This just isn't possible!"

Frowning, he reached for his global and dialed a secure number.

Two minutes of trying later, Ronald Sandoval's face finally appeared on the screen.

"Andrew?" Ron mumbled, blinking blearily at him. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Four-thirty, if you're in Washington DC," Andrew replied.

"Right. Four-thirty in the morning. It's too early for me to be awake."

"Cheer up, Ron, I've got something for you."

Sandoval's eyes widened, his expression suddenly becoming more alert. "Already?"

"Yeah... I've been up all night working on this. You're right about one thing - this guy is a real mystery," Andrew told him. "And you know me... I adore a challenge."

"So what have you got?"

"There has been some major tampering with this guy's file, Ron. I've only scratched the surface so far; it's going to take me a while to dig down deep enough to get what you want. But this Major Kincaid of yours is definitely hiding something."

Sandoval looked exasperated at that. "I know he's hiding something. In fact, I know he's hiding quite a few things - some of which I'm unofficially aware of. But you still haven't told me what you've found."

"Well, when you told me that he'd been MIA for a while during and after the S.I. War, I figured that one of the first things I could try doing was finding out where he was during that time. So I got his brainwave pattern and his DNA and ran a quiet comparative search on all of Earth's databases. And you're never going to guess what I found out."

The look in Sandoval's eyes was rapidly changing from exasperation to irritation. "And what is that?" he demanded with apparent calm.

Recognizing the danger signs, Andrew decided to stop teasing his friend. "Well, unless Major Kincaid is actually Jonathan Doors, someone substituted Doors' brainwave patterns for Kincaid's real ones. I'd thought that he might have been a POW somewhere, and that my search would pick it up, but I never expected to find something like this!"

Sandoval's face went impassive. "Doors' brainwave patterns," he said slowly. "Well, that does explain a few things... Have you found any other anomalies so far?"

"Nothing definite," Andrew replied, leaning back in his seat and shooting a quick glance at his screen. "But at the moment, I'm just working from the public record. I'm sure I'll find at least a few more when I get into the military files."

Sandoval frowned thoughtfully. "Kincaid has a hacker friend, a man by the name of Augur," he said slowly.

"The Seer?" Andrew asked.

Sandoval's response was a shrug. "Could he have done this?"

"I don't know... that name does sound familiar - I've definitely heard of him before - but I can't place it just at the moment," Andrew said. "Well, I'll check it out while I'm figuring out how to crack the US Army's files."

"Be careful, Andrew," Sandoval warned him. "I don't want you getting caught."

"Unlike some hackers I've met, I know my limits, Ron. Getting caught is definitely not on my list of things to do. Listen, I'll call you as soon as I've got something else, okay?"

Sandoval nodded in agreement. "All right. If I'm doing something where I can't talk, leave me a message to let me know you called, and I'll get back to you."

"Right," Andrew agreed. Then he squinted at Sandoval's face for a moment. "You know what, Ron? You need to get some sleep. You look awful." He quickly closed his global before his friend could reply, and returned his attention to his computer.

Sandoval sat back down on his bed, still staring at his now-blank global. Andrew's parting shot had produced a minor flash of exasperation, a state the other man seemed to delight in producing in him; but it was overwhelmed by the implications of what Andrew had found.

He'd wondered how Kincaid had managed to avoid a psychotic episode when Zo'or had been attempting to find a way to rid himself of Da'an. Now he knew; it hadn't been Kincaid's brainwaves they'd been changing at all; it had been Doors'. And obviously the Liberation had found out about it - possibly from Kincaid - and managed to get Doors back to normal.

But why on earth are his real brainwave patterns not on file? It doesn't make any sense!

Sighing, Sandoval lay down. As he'd pointed out to Andrew, it was too early in the morning for this. He needed more sleep.

Shifting slightly, his eyes fell on the two silver-framed photographs that now occupied his bedside table. With any luck, Dr. Curzon would soon have some answers for him.

Holding that thought and the image of the young boy playing with the puzzle in his mind's eye, Sandoval rapidly fell asleep.

Zo'or dismissed the datastream with a wave of his hand. He had no patience for reports at this time.

Major Kincaid had saved his life - at the risk of his own. It was the second time in just over two weeks - the third, if one counted the shooting in Seattle on Wednesday.

It puzzled him. Major Kincaid had no CVI, no motivational imperative, and Zo'or had received the definite impression that the Major's loyalty was to Da'an personally, not to the Taelon race as a whole, as was that of the Implants - those Implants whose motivational imperatives were still functional, that was.

And Major Kincaid had also made it obvious on numerous occasions that he didn't like Zo'or at all.

So why had the Major saved him? What had motivated the human's reaction?

He'd been curious about Da'an's reactions to the Major from the very beginning. His parent's interest in the human had provided him with an opportunity to be rid of Da'an for good, as bait in a trap for the Jaridian replicant. And yet, somehow, Major Kincaid had managed to save Da'an using an inadequate weapon - he hadn't been given a CVI and a skrill at Da'an's insistence, although it had suited Zo'or's own goals at the time to agree to the radical departure from procedure.

What was it about this human that had Da'an trusting him so much, even going as far as to discuss Taelon evolution with him?

But Da'an's trust had been proven correct, time and time again. Even when the mothership had been hijacked by the replicant, and the evidence had convinced - or rather, provided the excuse for - Zo'or to place Major Kincaid under arrest, Da'an had been proven correct in the end. It had been the replicant who was responsible, not Major Kincaid; and it had been Kincaid's plan that had saved them.

And now this...

Zo'or didn't understand. And he wanted to.

Sandoval opened his door and smiled as he heard the sound of running feet. A moment later, a small whirlwind hit him around the waist.

"Father! You're home!"

Sandoval chuckled. "Yes, I'm home."

His son stepped back, and light grey-green eyes looked at him accusingly from under a tousled mop of curly brown hair. "You're late!"

"I know, son," Sandoval replied, crouching down until his eyes were level with the boy's. "I'm sorry, but something came up. I'll make it up to you this weekend, okay?"

The boy studied him for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay. But I want to go to the zoo."

"The zoo it is," Sandoval agreed. "Where's your mother?"

"I'm right here," came the reply, and Sandoval looked up to see Siobhan Beckett standing in the doorway to the kitchen, wearing a white turtleneck shirt and a black suit. "The imp's right, Ronald; you should have at least called to let us know you'd be late. Your dinner's gotten cold."

"I'm sure it's fine, Siobhan," he said, standing up. "So, what else has happened today?"

"Your son's discovered a new trick," Beckett replied, sounding a touch exasperated.

How come when he gets over-excited about something he's always my son? Sandoval wondered. He turned back to the boy. "You have? Can I see?"

Grinning proudly, his son held out his hands. "Look!"

And Sandoval stared as swirls of glowing white energy appeared in the centre of his son's palms.

Raising his eyes from the glowing shaqarava, he was shocked to find himself suddenly facing Liam Kincaid.

"Do you see, Sandoval? Do you understand?"

Sandoval jerked awake with a gasp.

The dream again.

It was always the same; different locations and times, but the same dream.

It always started out as Sandoval with his son. Then Beckett appeared. And then, at the very end, Kincaid showed up - and always with the same questions.

Always.

Kincaid's right - I need this vacation, he thought with a sigh, rubbing his face tiredly. I'm so exhausted that I'm starting to confuse my investigation of him with the search for my son.

Sandoval leaned back in his chair and frowned as he studied the pile of files and notes on his desk.

He'd managed to get almost three more hours of sleep after Andrew's call, and despite having another of the bizarre dreams that had been haunting him lately, he'd been feeling almost rested - until he had walked into his office.

Then he'd been faced with the fact that he still had to interview Lt. Dietz this morning, and Kincaid wasn't available to help out; the Major had left a message on his global stating that he had a possible lead on the source of the material the gunman had used, and wanted to follow up on it.

With a sigh, he reached for his global, intending to ask Captain Jardine to find Lt. Dietz for him. Before he picked it up, however, it beeped.

Opening it, he was surprised to see Dr. Curzon's face.

"Doctor?"

"Agent Sandoval," Curzon replied. "I have that information you wanted."

Already?

And why does she look so unsettled? "What is it, Doctor?" he asked.

Curzon took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. "You may remember that I said I knew someone who might be able to figure out what the genetic oddities were?"

"Yes, Doctor, I remember," Sandoval replied, a touch impatiently. "Were they able to help?"

Dr. Curzon nodded. "I took the sample to Dr. Julianne Belman - she's a good friend of mine, and I knew she wouldn't ask any questions about it. She just called me back.

"Ron... She said she wasn't entirely certain, but the anomalies in your son's DNA look almost like Taelon genetic material."

Sandoval froze.

Taelon?

"What does that mean, exactly?" he managed after a moment or two.

"I'm not sure, but from the way she said it, I got the impression that she thought the sample was from a Human/Taelon hybrid. I didn't even know that was possible."

"It is," Sandoval said, remembering Steven and Belle, and the babies that were currently being kept under Da'an's protection on the moonbase. My son is a hybrid?

"Did you tell Dr. Belman why you wanted the blood analyzed?"

"Of course not!" Curzon replied, sounding indignant. "You asked me to keep it confidential. And as I said, she won't press me for answers."

"Good," Sandoval declared. "Thank you, Doctor."

Curzon's expression became one of concern as she looked at him. "Are you all right, Ron?"

Sandoval paused for a moment, and then, with a mental shrug, answered her. "Yes, I am. It's just... finding out I have a son I didn't know anything about was a bit of a shock. This is a much larger one. But it doesn't really change anything." And it didn't. He'd need some time to absorb it, he knew... but whether or not the child he was searching for was a hybrid, the boy was still his son. That was the only thing that mattered. "Does Dr. Belman still have the sample, or did she return it to you?"

"She used it all doing the tests," Dr. Curzon replied.

Sandoval nodded thoughtfully. "Do you have any left?"

"No. We needed most of what was donated for your treatment. What I gave Julianne was all that was left."

"All right." He'd had a momentary hope that Dr. Curzon would be able to find out who his son's mother had been, who else the Taelons had chosen; but there were other ways to get that information. "Again, Doctor, thank you. I greatly appreciate your help."

"You're welcome."

Sandoval closed his global, and then leaned back and closed his eyes. And I thought that life was complicated yesterday...

What exactly had the Taelons - had Da'an - done? And when had they done it? And... why hadn't Da'an told him? He'd helped Da'an with the hybrid project, but he'd thought that Belle and Steven were the only results of it.

And, of course, this brought back the other questions... Who had arranged for the donation of his son's blood; and who had left the present in his office?

Liam glanced up from the magazine he'd been skimming through as the door of Renee's office opened and Renee and Jonathan Doors walked in. He almost laughed at the expressions on their faces when they saw him sitting at Renee's desk; would have laughed, if the situation and his mood weren't so tense.

The day hadn't gotten off to a good start; he'd woken up to a throbbing ache in his shoulder, one that hadn't yet gone away, despite the increased dosage of painkillers and the collarbone brace. Then he'd spent almost half an hour persuading Dr. Belman to tell Dr. Curzon what he wanted her to.

At least he had managed to convince her, though he had the feeling that she had figured out why he was so insistent on this. He just hoped that Augur didn't figure it out as well. He didn't think the computer hacker would be overly pleased about his plans.

After that, Liam had figured that it might be a good idea if he gave Sandoval a bit of time to absorb the news before showing up, so he'd decided to check up on Doors and Renee and see if they'd found anything yet. Showing up before Renee had just been a bonus.

"Liam," Doors said, in the tone of voice that Liam had come to hate. It was a tone that said that Doors was speaking to a child who had to humoured.

"Jonathan," he countered.

Renee frowned. "What are you doing here, Liam?" she demanded.

"My job," he replied, keeping his tone calm. "Do you have any idea yet how this guy got past your security to steal the vaile?"

"No, Liam, we don't," Doors declared. "As I'm sure Renee told you, we'll let you know as soon as we find anything."

"I hope you've got your best people on this," Liam commented, closing the magazine.

"Of course," Doors replied.

"Good," Liam said calmly, getting up and coming around the desk to stand in front of Doors. "Because I would hate to have to tell Sandoval about your little project."

"Is that a threat?" Doors demanded coldly.

Liam shrugged. "Take it however you want," he replied, and before Doors could add anything else, or threaten him in return, he walked out of the office.

That went well enough, he decided, as he headed down the street. Although not quite as well as I hoped it would... Though with any luck, he'd shaken both Doors and Renee up enough that they'd take this seriously.

He was well aware of the fact that neither of them would mourn if Zo'or died. In fact, he was pretty sure that most of the people he knew wouldn't mourn Zo'or, his father included. But that didn't change the fact that if Zo'or died, if he was killed by a human, the stalemate that existed at the moment would only get much worse for humanity.

For the time being, he'd do his best to avoid telling Sandoval about the vaile. Hopefully, he wouldn't need to at all.

Sandoval.

I wonder if Dr. Curzon's told him yet?

I wonder what he thinks? Will he still want me?

The sound of laughter interrupted his thoughts, and Liam looked up, only just realizing that he'd arrived at the park near the Embassy, the one Da'an liked to visit occasionally.

There were a group of children there at the moment, laughing and playing, and Liam found himself watching them enviously. All of them - except perhaps the toddler in the stroller over by the bench, next to her mother - were older than him; and yet, he was the one with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

It wasn't fair. His chance to have a normal childhood had been stolen from him by his heritage and the circumstances of his birth. He'd become Da'an's Protector in the naïve hope that he could serve as a bridge between humanity and the Taelons, and had found himself instead dealing with fear and betrayal on an almost daily basis.

And you're doing a remarkably good job of feeling sorry for yourself, Liam reflected with a sigh. Life wasn't fair.

All the same, he was envious of the children. They at least had a chance at a normal life.

Okay, Liam, stop brooding and get to work, he ordered himself. The sooner they found the sniper, the sooner Sandoval would be able to go back to his vacation, and the sooner Liam might just have a chance at a bit of that 'normal' life.

He hoped.

He started toward the Embassy, absently rubbing his right palm. It felt terribly itchy.

So, now I just need to figure out how I'll be able to tell how Sandoval's reacting, Liam figured, as he started across the street. It would be hard; his father was an expert at hiding his emotions behind an impassive mask. But he was sure he could do it, given enough time.

"Mister! Look out!" came the sudden shout from the playground, and Liam looked up in time to see a car heading straight for him. And speeding up.

Sandoval frowned as he studied the information on the screen. According to the records he was able to access from the Taelon mainframe, the hybrid project had never involved actually conceiving new children, only modifying children that had already been conceived - although not necessarily born. The conception of children specifically designed to be Human/Taelon hybrids had been Belle and Steven Hartley's idea.

However, it was possible that his son's existence was recorded in an area of the mainframe that he didn't have access to. He just hoped Zo'or did.

He was just about to use his copy of Zo'or's energy signature to access the secured files when his door slid open and Da'an walked in.

Under any other circumstances, Sandoval might have been pleased to see the North American Companion. But now, considering the information Dr. Curzon had given him, and the fact that Da'an had never mentioned anything about using his DNA in the hybrid experiments, he was more that a little upset with Da'an. And then there was the fact that he'd just been about to try breaking into secured files...

But with the ease of long practice, Sandoval was able to conceal his anger.

"How can I help you, Da'an?" he asked.

"I have a question, Agent Sandoval," Da'an said. "I have been thinking about what has happened, and I was wondering; have you arrived yet at an explanation for why this assassin was using bullets - which cannot harm a Taelon - at Wednesday's ceremony?"

Sandoval shook his head. "Not really, Da'an. Major Kincaid suggested that it might have been a warning, but the events of yesterday morning cast some doubt on that theory. Why?"

"There is another possibility," Da'an said quietly.

"What?" Sandoval demanded. Anything that could help them get an idea on where the sniper was coming from...

"You and Liam are both Companion-Protectors," Da'an said. "Because of that, you both automatically made the assumption that the assassination attempt was aimed at Zo'or."

Sandoval blinked in confusion. "Who else could it have been aimed at, Da'an? The same person--" Or people, he thought suddenly, in alarm, but managed to keep the thought off his face. "The same person is responsible for both attacks. If his target was someone else on the dais, he would not have attacked Zo'or yesterday."

Da'an's hands moved gracefully in the Taelon equivalent of a sigh. "Agent Sandoval, Zo'or was not the only person present at both incidents."

Sandoval stared at him for a moment, puzzled, before he realized what Da'an was suggesting. What?! "You mean... you think that Major Kincaid is the target?!"

"It is a possibility that should be considered, Agent Sandoval," Da'an pointed out. "Bullets are capable of killing humans, but will not harm Taelons. The fact that the person in question used bullets during his first attack suggests to me that his target was, in fact, human."

"And Zo'or just got in the way?" Sandoval asked in disbelief. All the evidence they had so far - which was very little - suggested that the assassin was a professional. It didn't make sense that he'd miss that badly.

Da'an shook his head. "As I said, Liam is a Companion-Protector. When he saw the reflection off the rifle scope, he assumed that it was Zo'or who was the target; so he moved to protect Zo'or. That may, in fact, be what saved his life."

Sandoval nodded slowly. Da'an's ideas made an uncomfortable - very uncomfortable - amount of sense. "Have you mentioned this to Zo'or?"

"No," Da'an replied, his tone curt.

Sandoval started to ask why, and then he remembered the scene from yesterday morning, and Da'an's comments and concerns last night about Zo'or's insistence that Kincaid be the one to accompany him to Africa.

It wouldn't be the first time that Zo'or had tried to have Kincaid killed, which supported Da'an's theory... but Sandoval didn't buy it. There were too many loose ends. He shook his head. "I don't think Zo'or is responsible, Da'an," he replied finally. "For one thing, he could quite easily have been killed yesterday morning. Besides, I don't think that he would support the development of anything that can defeat your sensors."

Obviously, that angle hadn't occurred to Da'an. "You are correct, Agent Sandoval - this material could become a serious problem, one that not even Zo'or would countenance." He looked relieved.

"I had better inform Major Kincaid of this possibility," Sandoval began, but before he could do anything, his global beeped.

Liam winced in pain as he stood up, hoping desperately that the brace had done its job and prevented any more damage.

He'd had only a split-second to react, and he'd flung himself backwards, onto the sidewalk and out of reach of the car, which sped away before he managed to get a good look at the driver.

Carefully brushing the dirt from the sidewalk off his jacket, he grimaced as he noticed a rip in the left sleeve, from where he'd landed. The amount of damage this jacket took...

"Are you all right?" said a young voice from behind him - the same voice that had warned him only a minute ago - and he turned to see a girl of about ten or eleven standing close by.

"Yes, I am, thanks to you," Liam replied, smiling at her warmly. "I appreciate your warning me."

Just then, a woman who was probably the girl's mother came hurrying up. "Kelly! What are you doing?" she demanded.

Liam turned to face her. "As a matter of fact, ma'am, she was saving me," he said. "If she hadn't warned me, I would have been hit by a car."

The woman looked at him, and Liam could tell the exact moment she recognized him. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Listen... Kelly, is it?" Liam asked.

The girl nodded. "Yes. Kelly Stevens. This is my mom." She frowned slightly. "You look familiar."

Liam smiled. "My name's Liam Kincaid," he returned.

Kelly stared at him. "You're Da'an's Protector?" she asked in awe.

"Guilty as charged," Liam replied, grinning at her. "Listen, Kelly - have you ever been in a Taelon Embassy?"

"No," Kelly replied.

Liam looked at the girl's mother. "Mrs. Stevens... would it be all right for Kelly to visit the Embassy for a tour in a day or two - as a thank you for saving my life?"

"Cool!" Kelly exclaimed. "Can I, Mom?"

"I... I suppose," her mother replied, still looking a bit shell-shocked.

"Here's my card," Liam said, carefully extracting one of the cards from his pocket and handing it to Mrs. Stevens. "When you want to visit, just give me a call - it has my number embedded - and I'll leave word with the guards to let you in and give you the first-class tour."

"Thanks!" Kelly exclaimed. She then grabbed her mother's arm and started pulling her back toward the park. "Just wait till my friends hear about this..." Liam heard her saying as they walked away.

He spared another smile in their direction, and then turned his attention back to what had just happened.

He was fairly certain that the hit-and-run attempt had been deliberate. The car hadn't been trying to slow down when he'd seen it - it had been speeding up. And he'd managed to notice that the license plates had been covered in mud, keeping the plate itself obscured; which meant that the only way to identify the car would be by make, model and colour. His memory - a gift from the Kimera side of his ancestry - would be able to recall that information with no problem, but there were thousands of identical cars built every year.

Looking around carefully before crossing the street this time, Liam quickly made his way to the Embassy. There were no signs of any other attempts on his life, but he kept his attention on his surroundings; it was much better to be safe than sorry.

Luckily, there were no reporters around the Embassy today; Liam felt even less like giving an interview than he had yesterday.

He nodded an acknowledgement to the Volunteers on duty, and headed straight for Da'an's office and his desk. It was the one room in the entire Embassy that was guaranteed to be secure.

As soon as he sat down, he opened his global and called Sandoval.

"Yes?" Sandoval replied curtly, and then his eyes narrowed. "Major. I was just about to call you... What happened?" he added suddenly - probably noticing the rip in Liam's jacket.

"Hit-and-run," Liam replied. "I managed to get out of the way just in time. I think... I think it may have been deliberate, Sandoval. The car sped up when the driver saw me, and I was already in the way... and the license plate was covered in mud, so I couldn't read it."

Sandoval exchanged an alarmed look with Da'an; the Taelon's suggestion was sounding more and more plausible every moment.

"Major," he said, "Da'an has come up with an alternate theory concerning the assassin's actions on Wednesday - one that your report tends to support. He thinks that we may have been wrong about the target; that it may be you the assassin has been aiming for, not Zo'or."

Kincaid looked shocked. "Me?" he demanded. "Why would someone try to kill me - while putting Zo'or in serious danger at the same time?"

Well, he'd never thought that Kincaid was stupid - merely brash and impulsive. "It is unlikely that Zo'or is responsible, Major," Sandoval said calmly. "He would never agree to anything involving the level of security risk that this mysterious material does."

An expression flickered across Kincaid's face, but it was gone before Sandoval had a chance to recognize the emotion. "You're right," the Major agreed. "So, my question still stands - why would anyone want to kill me?"

"We'll have to figure that out," Sandoval returned. "For the moment, however, it would be wisest to act on the assumption that both you and Zo'or are targets. Zo'or will be staying on board the mothership; you should consider doing the same, Major."

For a moment, Kincaid looked as though he was seriously contemplating the idea. Then he shook his head. "If I am the target, I'm also the best chance we have of flushing this guy out," he pointed out.

Sandoval frowned. His instinctive reaction was to order Kincaid up to the mothership and put him under close guard, to make sure he didn't endanger himself; and he had no idea why. It should have been one possible reaction, but not the immediate one. In fact, his immediate reaction should have been to agree. Kincaid was right: he was the best possible bait. "Major..."

"You know I'm right, Sandoval," Kincaid said stubbornly.

Sandoval looked at Da'an again. The North American Companion looked as reluctant as he felt. Then an idea occurred to him.

This might just be the opportunity I've been looking for...

"I'll agree to this - on one condition, Major," he said.

Kincaid looked wary. "Condition?" he questioned. "What condition?"

"Until we find this assassin and stop him, you have a bodyguard with you at all times."

Kincaid's eyes narrowed. "Don't you think you're going just a bit overboard here, Sandoval? If this guy really is after me, he's already had three tries, and the only thing that's happened to me is that I have to wear this sling and brace for a few weeks."

Sandoval kept his expression firm. "That's the condition, Major."

"Come on, Sandoval!" Kincaid complained. "I've got work to do! Work that I won't be able to do with a Volunteer hanging over my shoulder!

"Da'an, talk to him!" Kincaid added, his tone pleading.

"I do not believe it is an unreasonable suggestion," Da'an said calmly.

Kincaid stared at Da'an in disbelief. "You... you... you what?" he sputtered.

"This assassin is a threat, Liam," Da'an explained. "If you are indeed his target, and he has failed to kill you three times so far, he will become more desperate. And from what I understand of humans, the more desperate someone is, the more dangerous he is."

"Da'an... you know I've got work to do that I can't do if I've got a Volunteer tagging along with me. Some of the people I need to talk to don't really like Volunteers that much..." Kincaid protested. "Wait a minute," he added after a moment, his expression brightening slightly. "I've got Corporal Roberts - my pilot. He's a Volunteer, and has already proven that he can think quickly under fire."

"Actually, Major," Sandoval put in calmly, "I wasn't thinking of assigning a Volunteer. And I don't think that a pilot - one who would have to stay with the shuttle - really qualifies."

Kincaid blinked. "So who did you have in mind?" he asked.

"Me," Sandoval replied calmly.

Kincaid stared at him for a moment, obviously startled. But before he could voice the protest Sandoval could see forming, Da'an spoke up.

"An excellent idea, Agent Sandoval," the Taelon declared, sounding pleased. "I will arrange it with Zo'or."

Kincaid was starting to look a bit panicked at this point. "But Da'an..."

"I must insist, Liam," Da'an said firmly. "Agent Sandoval, you will prepare to leave immediately. Liam, you will remain in the Embassy until Agent Sandoval arrives."

"But..."

"This is an order, Liam."

Kincaid sighed in resignation, but he definitely didn't look happy. "All right. I'll see you when you get down here, Sandoval," he said, and closed the connection.

Sandoval turned to Da'an. "Thank you for supporting me in this, Da'an."

Da'an met his eyes. "Keep Major Kincaid safe, Agent Sandoval. That is all I ask."

Sandoval nodded in acknowledgement.

Liam closed his global and stared blankly at his desk for a minute.

This... this was going to be a problem. Having Sandoval hanging around... well, for one thing, all Resistance matters were going to have to be put on hold. That was going to be trouble.

And if the assassin was after him...

Why? Why would anyone want to kill me?

Well, actually, considering that Zo'or's tried several times, and the entire Synod would probably want me dead if they knew the truth, perhaps the question should be: why would anyone other than the Taelons want to kill me? It doesn't make any sense!

...It would put his father in more danger as well.

Then another thought occurred to him. With Sandoval hanging around, he wasn't going to be able to do anything about the matter of the vaile without letting his father know the truth, which meant that he was going to have to tell him.

Which meant that he'd better give Augur a call before Sandoval got here.

Augur looked up as his global beeped. Opening it, he was surprised to see Liam on the small screen. Then he noticed the condition of the kid's jacket, and frowned. "What happened, Liam?" he demanded.

"You sound just like Sandoval," Liam muttered.

Just like Sandoval? Augur thought in disbelief. Is he trying to be insulting? "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he replied.

Liam sighed. "Augur..."

"What happened?" Augur repeated.

"A hit-and-run," Liam answered. "This car came out of nowhere and tried to run me down. I was lucky - a kid who was playing in the park nearby saw it before I did and warned me. I managed to get out of the way in time."

"You know, Liam, it occurs to me that you might just be going a little overboard with this protecting Zo'or thing."

"I'm not the one going overboard," Liam muttered.

"I don't know about that," Augur countered. "I mean, so far Zo'or hasn't even been touched; you seem to be the one getting all the injuries."

Liam fidgeted slightly. "Well..."

"What is it?" Augur demanded. He had a bad feeling about this...

"Da'an and Sandoval have a new theory," Liam replied after a moment, his tone reluctant. "They seem to think that the assassin's target isn't Zo'or."

"Then who...?" Augur started, and then stopped. "You. Da'an and Sandoval think the assassin's actually after you?"

"Yeah," Liam admitted.

Augur studied him thoughtfully. Considering everything that had happened to Liam since Wednesday morning, it did make a great deal of sense. "So what are you going to do about it?"

Liam looked disgusted. "Sandoval gave me a choice: I can either be confined on the mothership for my own safety until this guy is caught, or I get a bodyguard - him. And Da'an backed him up, which means that it's take it or leave it - no compromises. Sandoval's going to be my shadow until this is over."

"Cheer up," Augur suggested. "Maybe this will give you two a chance to talk."

"What do you mean?" Liam asked, giving him an innocent look.

Augur shook his head, not fooled. Dr. Belman had given him a call earlier this morning and filled him in on what Liam had told her to tell Dr. Curzon. Putting that together with the other things Liam had been doing and saying about Sandoval, it had been obvious where it was leading. "Your 'orders' to Belman weren't exactly subtle, Liam. It wasn't hard to figure out what you're up to. I just hope you know what you're doing, because if Sandoval figures it out and tells the Taelons..."

"He won't."

Augur shrugged. "Whatever you say, kid." He wasn't as certain as Liam was about it, but he obviously wasn't going to be able to convince Liam that it was much better to be safe than sorry, especially when dealing with Sandoval. Well, he'd already decided that he was going to keep a close eye on the kid - now he just had one more reason to add to that list. "Now, what were you calling about?"

"I wanted to let you know about Da'an's theory and orders, first of all - with Sandoval hanging around, I won't exactly have much of a chance to see you until this is over; and... I'm going to tell Sandoval about the vaile. We have to figure this mess out, and that means that Sandoval is going to need all the information we've got. Besides, it's now going to be him co-ordinating my security, instead of me co-ordinating Zo'or's."

Augur heaved a sigh. He didn't like the idea of giving Sandoval any information about what Doors was up to - but the kid was right. It was now Liam's life on the line, and that was not something that he took lightly. "All right, tell him. I'll warn Renee."

"Thanks, Augur. Tell her that I'm going to imply to Sandoval that the effect the vaile has on Taelon sensors is actually an inadvertent side-effect of what the material is actually supposed to do - that should help ease Sandoval's suspicions. And also let her know that I'm going to need to keep a low profile for the next little while, until this situation is over and done with.

"Oh," Liam added suddenly, "there is one more thing. I want you to check out my records, see if anyone's accessed them over the past two to three weeks. And set up some sort of flag, something that will alert you if they get accessed from now on. If Da'an's theory about me being the target is right, then I'm pretty sure that this guy must have at least tried to get information on me. If I'm right, and they have been accessed, see if you can find out who's done it."

"Got it," Augur said. "I'll call you as soon as I know something."

"Good," Liam said. He paused, and then added, "Augur... thanks."

Knowing that Liam wasn't thanking him for agreeing to the job, Augur said simply, "You're welcome," and closed his global.

Grabbing some food from his fridge, he quickly made himself a sandwich, and then sat down at the computer. Turning to his hologram, which was currently based on Lorna Greene, the famous Canadian actress, he said, "All right... let's get to work, shall we?"

"Whatever you say, Augur," Holo-Lorna replied. She tapped rapidly on a keyboard. "There have been eight accesses of Major Kincaid's public records over the past three weeks, and five accesses of his military records, as well as four unsuccessful attempts."

"Looks like we have our work cut out for us," Augur said, and turned his attention to his computer screen. He frowned thoughtfully. "Start by checking out those four attempts at accessing his military records," he ordered. "They should be the easiest ones to trace."

"Starting access trace," Holo-Lorna said calmly.

Taking out his global again, Augur took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. Time to call Renee... Let's just hope she won't have a fit.

Liam looked up from the paperwork he'd been trying to do for the past ten minutes as he heard Sandoval's voice out in the hall, talking to one of the Volunteers.

Absently rubbing his palm, he wondered how he was going to handle this. Not telling Sandoval about the vaile - he'd already decided what he was going to say about that, including something that would hopefully convince Sandoval that Doors International's creation of the vaile was innocent. No, the main problem was going to be dealing with his father on a constant basis until they found the gunman, while at the same time not revealing his secrets. Yes, he'd been dropping a lot of hints, but he didn't feel ready to give Sandoval the full truth, not yet.

And I still don't know how he's reacting to Dr. Curzon's news - she must have called him by now. He shook his head. Okay, Liam, stop this. Either he'll accept it or he won't. Nothing you can do is going to change that. Concentrate on the gunman. Once that's taken care of, then you can worry about Sandoval.

Sandoval walked in, and Liam's attention fixed on his father. And suddenly, another question occurred to him. Why did Sandoval decide that he should act as my bodyguard? It was his suggestion, and he was the one who insisted on it - I could've convinced Da'an that if I had to have someone guarding me, Corporal Roberts would be perfect. And despite the fact that we've started to become friends - I think - Sandoval still doesn't really care for me. So why has he suddenly volunteered to spend all this time with me?

"Major," Sandoval acknowledged him. "I didn't have a chance to ask you when you called - did you manage to find anything?"

Liam shook his head. He wasn't going to tell Sandoval about the vaile right away - he'd give Renee some time to come up with something before bringing Sandoval down on her and Doors. "Not yet," he replied. "The lead I was following petered out, but I have got some people looking into this for me. With any luck, I'll get some answers from them fairly soon. What about you? Any luck?"

Sandoval shook his head as he walked over to the window that looked out over the city. "I've interviewed everyone from Lieutenant Dietz's squad except the Lieutenant herself, as well as the four Volunteers who were on the bridge when Zo'or made the arrangements with Si'al and the premier. They all came up clean.

"The squad members all agree that nothing showed up on the sensors - which we already know - and they all think the reason Lieutenant Dietz didn't have another physical sweep done was because the first one was finished only fifteen minutes before you, Zo'or and Da'an arrived."

Liam nodded slowly as he thought about it. "Well, considering that none of us knew about the material before this mess, it isn't really all that unreasonable," he said.

Sandoval turned to face him, his expression dark. "That should not have made a difference, Major," he disagreed. "You are a Companion-Protector, and you gave them an order - one that dealt with issues of Companion security. Whatever she might have thought about it, the fact remains that in not conducting another physical search, Lieutenant Dietz disobeyed an order from a superior officer."

Liam opened his mouth to protest, and then closed it. As much as he would prefer not to get Lt. Dietz in trouble, the fact was that Sandoval was right. By not instigating the physical search along with the sensor sweep, she had disobeyed the order he had given. And that disobedience had cost them; it was possible that if the Volunteers had conducted the physical sweep, they would have caught the gunman before any of this had happened.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked.

"We still need to interview Lieutenant Dietz," Sandoval replied. "I don't believe that she provided the gunman with either assistance - knowingly, at least - or information, but we need to know her reasoning for not conducting the physical search, not just the assumptions of her squad. I've already ordered Captain Jardine to find her and send her here.

"We also need to come up with some plan to flush out the assassin without putting you in too much danger," he added.

"I'm fresh out of ideas," Liam said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. His shoulder was hurting - if this kept up, Dr. Park was either going to put him in a body cast or forcibly hospitalize him; his palms were itching; and he was developing a horrendous headache.

I just want everything to go away, he thought, a touch wistfully. I want...

I want to be able to tell Sandoval the truth, and have him tell me that everything's going to be all right - even if it's not. I want to be able to hug him and get hugged back. I want - just for a little while - to be Sandoval's son. Not Da'an's Protector, not the leader of the Resistance, not Major Kincaid... just Liam.

Why is that so much to ask?

"Major?" Sandoval inquired.

Liam opened his eyes and looked up at his father. "Just thinking," he mumbled. He rubbed his palms together, careful not to jar his right arm or shoulder - the left one was starting to itch as well.

"About what?"

Liam blinked in surprise, and then realized that Sandoval probably assumed that his thoughts had something to do with the investigation. Sorry to disappoint you. "That I'm tired." It was the truth, though not the whole truth. "I didn't get much sleep last night because of the pain."

Sandoval gave an understanding nod. "I hate to say this, but at the moment, I don't have any ideas either. Our best bet is probably to interview Lieutenant Dietz, and then worry about what to do next."

"In other words, I can go back to my paperwork until the Lieutenant gets down here," Liam concluded.

Sandoval gave him a faint, surprising grin. "You may even manage to make a dent in it."

"That's probably pushing it a bit far," Liam admitted, "but at least I'll have a bit less to do later on. I just hope you've got something to keep you occupied as well, or we're going to drive each other crazy."

A strange expression flickered across Sandoval's face. "Yes, Major, I have some things to do. If you have no objections, I'll make use of the office next door."

Liam shrugged his left shoulder, and then reminded himself not to do that again as agony lanced through his right side. He waited a moment to make sure that his voice was under control, and then said, "No objections whatsoever. Even with this material, I doubt this guy will be able to get into the Embassy, especially since all Volunteers on duty have been warned about it. Aside from the mothership, here is probably the safest place for me to be."

And besides, if you're not in here constantly looking over my shoulder, I might just be able to pull this off...

"All right," Sandoval agreed. "I'll join you back here as soon as Lieutenant Dietz arrives."

Renee's lips tightened as she studied the screen in front of her.

It had happened again. Someone had taken a project under her supervision and messed it up. It was bad enough that the vaile had been stolen to begin with... but to have that very same stolen material used during a very public assassination attempt...

Renee was honest enough to admit that she'd shed no tears if Zo'or were to be killed - in fact, she'd probably even go so far as to nominate the person responsible for a medal - but not in a situation that involved anything that could be linked back to Doors International!

What was worse was that - according to Augur - the new working theory was that it wasn't Zo'or who was the target at all; it was Liam. There was no way in hell that she was going to allow anybody to use one of her projects to kill the leader of the Resistance.

And, of course, the icing on the cake... Liam, of all people, was bringing Sandoval down on their necks because of this.

It had not been a good week.

She sighed and tapped a code into the computer, bringing up the security records for the past two weeks. She'd review the security records one more time before changing tactics; regardless of what she had to do, she was going to get to the bottom of this.

She focused her attention on the records for Lab 15, and began running through them.

Half an hour later, Renee's eyes narrowed in satisfaction as she studied the figure displayed on her screen. Now let's find out who you are.

The intruder had known about most of the security systems around the lab areas, and had managed to circumvent them quite neatly; but he hadn't known about the extra hidden cameras that Renee had a habit of installing in the labs that dealt with Resistance projects. As a result, they'd actually managed to catch him in the act of stealing the vaile.

Okay, be a good little thief and turn just a bit this way...

She advanced the security record frame by frame, and a moment later a triumphant grin crossed her face as the thief turned so that he was facing the camera. Gotcha!

Studying the face on the screen, she frowned. The man looked familiar. She'd definitely seen him somewhere before. The only question is... where?

Thinning blond hair, dark eyes...

Her frown deepened. He wasn't a Doors employee, she knew that - but for some reason, the memory of him seemed to be connected to Doors.

Coming to a decision, she picked up her global and opened it, calling Jonathan.

"Yes?" Doors demanded.

"I've got a picture of our thief, Jonathan," Renee told him. "He looks familiar, but I can't quite place him. I'm sending you the image; do you know who he is?"

Doors' expression hardened as he saw the image. "I think you'd better get up here, Renee," he said.

That translated as, 'it's not safe to talk about it in the open'. Renee pursed her lips. "All right, I'll be right up."

Closing her global, she exited from the security program and was just about to stand up when her global beeped.

Sighing, she opened it - and gave Liam a furious glare. "What is it?" she demanded coldly. Liam was the last person she wanted to deal with at the moment.

"Just wanted to advise you that I'm about to tell Sandoval about the vaile," he replied.

"Are you really that crazy, Liam?" she snapped. "You tell him about it, and you're putting all of our necks in the noose."

Liam didn't look at all impressed by her vehemence. "Didn't Augur tell you my plan?"

"Oh, right, just tell Sandoval that the vaile's effect on Taelon sensors is actually just a side-effect. He's really going to buy that," Renee returned sarcastically.

Something flickered across Liam's face. "You never know," he replied calmly.

Renee shook her head. "I think this is a really bad idea, Liam. Listen, I've managed to get a picture of the thief - it turns out that he didn't know about my extra security precautions. I don't think it will take me too long to find out exactly who he is. You can give Sandoval that information."

"And how will knowing who he is enable us to catch him before he attacks again?" Liam demanded. "If he has the vaile, he can evade us easily - unless we know how to defeat its effect." He gave her a pointed look.

Renee's mouth tightened. Obviously Jonathan hadn't managed to delete or hide all the files on the vaile - Liam's expression made it clear that he knew about the shuttle sensors.

"Liam, the vaile can help the Resistance greatly - but not if Sandoval and the Volunteers know how to defeat it!"

"Maybe you and Doors should have thought of that earlier," Liam said coldly. "Much earlier. It's too late now.

"Sandoval and I will probably be there within the next hour or two. Have your story ready by then," he added curtly, and closed the channel.

Renee looked at the blank global screen for a moment or two longer, and then shut it with a snap.

This had been a really bad week.

And it looked as though it was only going to get worse.

Da'an stood on the bridge of the mothership, looking out the virtual glass window at the Earth.

"You wished to see me, Da'an?" came Zo'or's voice from behind him.

Da'an turned to face the other Taelon. "Yes," he replied.

"About what?"

Da'an moved his hands rapidly, though still with innate grace, the speed broadcasting his agitation. "Agent Sandoval and I believe that these attacks were not aimed at you, Zo'or."

Zo'or looked... startled; not the startlement of being caught out, but rather that of genuine surprise. The expression lasted only a moment, replaced quickly by the haughtiness that his child usually displayed, but it was there long enough for Da'an to see it, and feel relieved. It appeared that Agent Sandoval's belief that Zo'or was not involved was correct.

"I do not understand how you could come to that conclusion, Da'an," Zo'or said then. "It appears obvious that this unknown human - probably a member of the Resistance - was attempting to kill me."

"Why, then, did this assassin use bullets in Seattle, Zo'or?" Da'an countered. "There may be some humans who are not aware that bullets cannot harm us, but both Agent Sandoval and Major Kincaid believe this assassin to be a professional. As such, he must know that bullets would be ineffective."

"I believe Major Kincaid had a theory concerning that," Zo'or said dismissively, turning and sitting down in the command chair.

"He believed that it might have been a warning," Da'an agreed. "But the events of yesterday and today have led us to believe otherwise."

Zo'or turned back to face him, looking impatient. "And what is this theory that you and Agent Sandoval have come up with?" he said, a touch of scorn in his voice.

Da'an was rather surprised at that. When dealing with humans and human behaviour, Zo'or tended to at least listen to Agent Sandoval's suggestions, even if he chose not to follow them. To hear him dismiss Agent Sandoval's ideas that way...

It was... disturbing.

Nonetheless, he forged ahead. "We believe that the target may be Major Kincaid," he said. "There was an incident this morning - a car attempted to run the Major down; a car that had all identifying marks concealed. Combining this attempted... 'hit and run', I believe the human term is... with the earlier use of bullets in Seattle, it becomes increasingly more likely that the assassin is targeting Major Kincaid."

Zo'or looked thoughtful. "It is a possibility," he conceded after a moment's thought. "Have you or Agent Sandoval discussed it with Major Kincaid?"

"Yes," Da'an replied. "Agent Sandoval is currently with the Major; he will be acting as Liam's protector until this is resolved."

Liam hadn't been happy about that, Da'an knew; his Protector had been almost frantic in trying to convince both himself and Agent Sandoval that it was not a wise idea. And under most circumstances, because of Liam's involvement with the Resistance, Da'an would have agreed. But this was not most circumstances; Liam was in danger, and Agent Sandoval was the one most likely to be able to protect him.

Zo'or's expression was unreadable. "I see," he said calmly. "Have they made any further progress in identifying the culprit?"

"I do not know," Da'an replied. "As of this morning, they had not."

Zo'or nodded. "Very well. Thank you for the information, Da'an," he said, and turned the command chair away.

Da'an watched him for a moment or two longer, and then turned back to the view of Earth.

He was worried. A human would have no reason to kill Liam, unless he was a supporter of the Taelons who knew of Liam's ties to the Resistance. Even then, the most likely course of action would be to inform the Taelons, not attempt to kill Liam himself - and certainly not in a way that threatened Zo'or. It made no sense.

And he was concerned for Liam. Yes, they had their differences; but they believed in the same goals. And although the Hartley twins had proven that it was possible to create Human/Taelon hybrids who possessed shaqarava, Da'an still felt that Liam was the best hope for both their species.

Da'an put one hand against the window as he turned his attention to the view. He could only hope that Liam and Agent Sandoval managed to identify this man quickly, before he attempted once again to kill Liam.

"You recognize him, don't you," Renee said, as soon as she had closed the door to his office.

Doors looked up from the screen he'd been staring at. "What makes you say that?" he demanded.

"Oh, come on, Jonathan, don't give me that," Renee returned, sitting down opposite him. "The very fact that you asked me up here to discuss it says that; and even if it didn't, I told you his face looks familiar. I've seen him somewhere before - somewhere with you."

Doors sighed. "You're right," he admitted reluctantly, after a moment. "You have seen him with me before."

"So who is he?"

Doors took a deep breath, and then turned his screen so that Renee could read the information on it.

There was a pause, and then...

"Oh, my God..." Renee breathed.

Doors nodded in agreement.

"He's after Liam, you know."

Doors stared at her. "What?" he demanded. "What do you mean, he's after Liam? He's been trying to kill Zo'or."

Renee shook her head. "According to what Augur told me, Da'an and Sandoval are pretty convinced that Liam's the target, not Zo'or. And Augur thinks that they're right."

"But why would he be after Liam, damn it?" Doors demanded.

Renee shrugged. "For the same reason we'd both like to see Sandoval dead?" she suggested. "After all, as far as the world at large is concerned, Liam is a Companion-Protector.

"Oh, and speaking of Companion-Protectors - and Liam and Sandoval in particular," she added hurriedly, "we've got another problem to deal with."

Sandoval stared at the screen in frustration.

He'd just spent almost an hour going through all the Embassy's secured files, and had found no mention whatsoever of his son.

There had been a great deal about the hybrid project, from the preliminary notes and observations of the Hartley twins to the discovery of the babies and results of the tests that were being carried out at the moonbase... but there was nothing there that Sandoval didn't already know about.

Leaning back in the chair, he sighed. Because of Da'an's interruption and the revelation that Kincaid was most likely the real target of the assassin, he hadn't had a chance to investigate the mothership's mainframe - but then he'd thought about it, and realized that any records of the project would probably be stored at the Embassy. It had been Da'an's project, after all. But neither his access codes nor Zo'or's energy signature - which he'd made very careful use of - had revealed any hidden files about the project.

About his son.

Closing his eyes, Sandoval took a deep breath. It was still hard for him to believe that he had a son, although the fact that he was still alive was definitely proof; and, as he'd said to Dr. Curzon this morning - Was it only this morning? he thought with a touch of disbelief. It feels like it's been days since then... - the fact that his son was apparently a hybrid was a huge shock.

He'd left the pictures at home - the last thing he wanted was to call attention to them - but he could see them perfectly in his mind's eye thanks to his CVI.

How old is he really? Sandoval wondered. The hybrid babies on the moonbase appeared to be - physically - about 1-1/2 years old right now, although they were actually only a few months old. Had his son aged the same way? If so, how old had he really been when the second photo had been taken? And how old did he appear to be now?

Opening his eyes, he looked at the screen again. Nothing had changed.

He was just about to try linking up to the mothership's mainframe when the door of the office opened and Kincaid poked his head in.

"Sandoval..."

"Is Lieutenant Dietz here?" Sandoval asked.

Kincaid shook his head. "No, not yet; but I've just received some information that I think you should know about."

"Oh?" Sandoval inquired.

Kincaid nodded as he came into the office. "I just got a call from one of my contacts," he explained. "He did some digging, and, well... he managed to find out a few things."

Sandoval's eyes narrowed as he studied the Major. Kincaid didn't look overly pleased with the news he was delivering.

"What sort of things, Major?" he demanded.

Kincaid took a deep breath and then let it out in a sigh. "The material - it's called vaile - is the project of someone at Doors International. He wasn't able to find out who. From the information he managed to acquire, a large quantity of it was stolen five days ago."

"Doors International?" Sandoval commented thoughtfully. This was an interesting development.

Of course, he'd also be interested in knowing exactly how long Major Kincaid had been aware of this information.

Kincaid nodded. "Yes. The good news is that the protection it provides from Taelon sensors is strictly temporary. According to what he told me, if you know what you're looking for, a shuttle's sensors can penetrate it in less than ten minutes. It's apparently a side-effect of whatever the original research was about."

"A side-effect," Sandoval repeated. He didn't believe that for a moment; not with Jonathan Doors involved. He couldn't help but wonder if Kincaid really thought that he would be fooled by that.

Kincaid nodded again. "I don't know what the original research was on; that information wasn't included either. But I've got the technical information here," he held up a small disk, "including how to defeat it. If he attacks again, it will still take the sensors a few minutes to penetrate the vaile; but if we can keep him contained that long, we'll have him."

"Good," Sandoval said, plucking the disk from Kincaid's hand. He studied it for a moment, and then looked back up at the Major. "As soon as we finish with Lieutenant Dietz, Major, I think we need to pay a visit to Ms. Palmer and Mr. Doors."

"All right," Kincaid agreed, and Sandoval was surprised to see a faint hint of satisfaction in his expression.

Interesting...

Just then, Sandoval's global beeped. Opening it, he saw Captain Jardine. "Yes, Captain?"

"Sir, I'm on my way with Lieutenant Dietz. We should be arriving at the Embassy within the next fifteen minutes."

"Good." Closing his global, Sandoval looked at Kincaid. "You heard, Major?"

Kincaid nodded. "How are we going to handle this?" he asked.

"I'll ask the questions," Sandoval replied. "You listen - and watch her carefully. As I said, I don't believe she is involved; but I may be wrong."

Liam leaned back in his chair and watched Sandoval pace around as they waited for Captain Jardine and Lt. Dietz. He wondered if his father even realized what he was doing - the pacing was a nervous habit from before Sandoval had been implanted. He knew about it from Sandoval's memories, but he'd never seen his father do it before. Not even when Zo'or was in a bad mood.

But then, he'd been seeing a lot of uncharacteristic behaviour from Sandoval over the past three days. All the concern his father had been showing... it was strange.

And yet, Liam had to admit to himself that he'd been soaking it up. It seemed to indicate that Sandoval was starting to consider him a bit more than just a very annoying colleague. And being friends was definitely better than nothing.

He absently rubbed his left palm with his thumb as Sandoval continued pacing.

Despite what both Renee and Sandoval seemed to think, he didn't expect Sandoval to actually believe the story about the vaile's effects. But Liam had the definite feeling that Sandoval would act as though he believed it, and that was all that was needed. He only hoped that Renee could come up with something that was at least plausible - after all, they were going to have to provide an explanation for the Taelons.

Renee...

He was going to have trouble with her. He just knew it. She was furious about Sandoval being told, and Doors was only going to be worse. But, for the most part, the situation they were in was one of their own making. If they had bothered to tell him about the vaile before any of this had happened...

He sighed softly. If only, he thought ruefully. Turn all the 'ifs' into gold, and we'd all be millionaires - right, Mother?

His thoughts were interrupted as Lt. Dietz appeared in the entrance to the room. He sat up, straightening in his chair.

"Agent Sandoval, Major," she said, saluting. "You wanted to see me, sirs?"

Sandoval stopped pacing and turned to face her. "That's right, Lieutenant. I have some questions for you about the incident on Wednesday."

"Yes, sir."

"You told me that you conducted a physical search of the hospital and surrounding area before Major Kincaid, Zo'or and Da'an arrived, correct?"

"Yes, sir, that's correct," Lt. Dietz replied.

"How long before they arrived was the search completed?"

"Approximately ten to fifteen minutes, sir."

Sandoval walked toward her. "And what area did you search?" he demanded.

"Me personally, sir?" Lt. Dietz asked. When Sandoval nodded, she replied, "The roof of the hospital and the top two floors, sir. Sergeant Nicholls assisted me in that."

"And did you see any sign - any sign at all - of the sniper, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir!" Lt. Dietz replied sharply.

Liam watched as Sandoval nodded and started to circle around behind the Lieutenant; it was an interrogation technique his father tended to use when he was suspicious of something - or when he wanted to intimidate. And it was intimidating; Liam could testify to that from personal experience.

"And what did you do when Major Kincaid ordered another sweep, Lieutenant?" Sandoval demanded.

Lt. Dietz was starting to look a bit nervous now. "I... I ordered a sensor sweep, sir," she replied.

"Just a sensor sweep?"

"Yes, sir," the Lieutenant replied, swallowing.

"And why was that, Lieutenant? Why didn't you order another physical search as well?"

Lt. Dietz took a deep breath. "I didn't feel it was necessary, sir," she replied. "After all, the sensors were active; they should have detected anything unusual. A sensor sweep should have been sufficient, and the ceremony was due to start in less than ten minutes. There wouldn't have been enough time to conduct a thorough physical search in any event. And we would not have reached the roof before the sniper fired."

Judging from the look on his father's face, Sandoval wasn't too pleased with her answer. Lt. Dietz was trying to justify herself; not something Sandoval - or Liam, for that matter - approved of.

"I don't believe I asked you whether you would have been able to find the sniper, Lieutenant," Sandoval said coolly from directly behind her. "My question was why you didn't order a physical sweep."

"Because the sensor sweep should have been sufficient, sir," Lt. Dietz repeated.

"And yet, Major Kincaid ordered a full security sweep, Lieutenant. It was not up to you to determine what was or was not sufficient."

The Lieutenant stiffened. "Yes, sir," she said, her tone flat.

"Disobedience of a senior officer is a very serious matter, Lieutenant," Sandoval continued, coming around to face her. "Disobedience of a Companion-Protector, when dealing with issues of Companion Security, is even more so. And in this instance... your negligence may have resulted in the sniper escaping."

"I understand, sir."

"Good," Sandoval declared. "I will be raising this matter with your immediate superior; he will decide on the appropriate discipline.

"You are dismissed, Lieutenant."

Lieutenant Dietz saluted them both, then turned on her heel and marched out.

"I think you're right, that she isn't involved," Liam said after a minute, leaning back again. "Yes, she may have been in the wrong about doing the second physical sweep, but her reasoning was sound."

"I agree," Sandoval said, and sighed. "As I said, we'll let her superior - Captain Masters, I believe it is - deal with the matter of her disobedience of your orders. I'm sure he'll be able to come up with a suitable form of discipline." He looked at Liam. "For the moment, I believe that we have a visit to make - to Doors International."

Liam nodded, standing up. Doors was going to have a fit.

Remembering earlier this morning, he couldn't help the faint grin that crossed his face. If this entire situation hadn't been so serious, he would be really looking forward to the coming confrontation between his father and Doors. They really didn't like each other.

But it was serious - deadly serious, he thought, the grin disappearing as he followed Sandoval out of the office. And if Da'an and Sandoval were right... he was the one for whom it could become deadly.

It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Andrew frowned as he studied the picture on his screen. This couldn't be right!

Pulling the main file up again, he stared at it, and then switched back to the picture.

Shaking his head, he leaned back in his chair. "This is weird. Really, really weird," he muttered. "It doesn't make any sense!"

He stared at the screen for a moment longer, and then sat forward. He was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.

Looking at the picture again, Andrew shook his head slowly. "Looks like your Major Kincaid is hiding even more than you thought, Ron..."

Sandoval sauntered into Jonathan Doors' office, followed by Major Kincaid, and smiled grimly when he saw Doors and Palmer both waiting for them - Doors sitting at his desk, and Palmer leaning against the wall behind him - presenting a unified front that was, for once, not going to work. He and Kincaid were in the right here, and everyone in this meeting knew it.

He was mildly surprised at how it felt to go into this confrontation secure in the knowledge that he had Kincaid's full support; Resistance ties or not, Kincaid was upset with both Doors and Palmer - his actions made that obvious. It felt good to be working together for a common goal.

"Agent Sandoval," Doors said, standing up - he appeared to be pleased, but Sandoval could tell that he was faking it. "Major... I was just about to call you."

Well. That was a surprise. Assuming it was true, of course.

"Oh?" Sandoval inquired.

"Please, sit down," Doors continued, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. Sandoval thought for a moment and then sat, but Kincaid ignored the other chair and walked over to the window, peering out.

Sandoval frowned. Was Kincaid determined to ignore all security precautions? "Major..."

When the younger man turned to face him, Sandoval gestured pointedly at the chair. Kincaid hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the window; then seemed to remember that he was the target of an assassin and, assuming a chastened expression, he obediently walked over and sat down.

Sandoval, satisfied, turned back to Doors. "You were just about to call us?" he repeated.

"Yes." Doors sat down and leaned forward. "It seems that one of the high-security labs was broken into a few days ago, and the project currently in development in that lab was stolen."

Interesting... Sandoval thought, surprised. He hadn't expected Doors to introduce the subject of the stolen material. Let's see where he goes with this... "What sort of project was this?"

"The scientist involved was working on developing a cloth that appeared almost like virtual glass," Doors replied. "It started out as being a minor project for him - fashion design is a hobby of his - but when it was discovered that he had created something with very unusual properties, we had it moved to the high-security section."

"Unusual properties?" Sandoval questioned.

"Yes," Renee Palmer answered, frowning. Sandoval had no doubt that she hated having to tell him this; from what he'd seen of the information Kincaid had given him, this material could prove to be a huge boon to the Resistance. "Some part of the process he used to create the cloth provided it with the ability to block Taelon sensor scans. At the moment, we still don't know how he did it."

"I see," Sandoval said slowly. "Are you certain this is not what the scientist intended from the beginning?" The implication was quite clear to everyone present.

Doors looked indignant at the question, but Sandoval ignored the obviously false emotion. Doors wasn't fooling him in the slightest; this was very obviously an act put on for his benefit.

"Of course I'm certain!" Doors snapped. "I've broken my ties to the Resistance, Agent Sandoval."

Considering the fact that his CEO was heavily involved in the Resistance, Sandoval didn't believe that for a minute. But he didn't let it show. "And why were the Taelons not informed of the development of this material?" he demanded.

Doors sighed. "Because, as Ms. Palmer said, we have no idea how it happened. We wanted to investigate the process first, so that we could give Zo'or a more complete report."

Sandoval didn't believe that either, but hopefully Zo'or wouldn't be as suspicious as he was.

Then Kincaid leaned forward in his chair - most likely trying to get them off the topic of why they'd kept the material a secret. "You said it was stolen? By whom?"

"I have no idea of the person's identity, Major Kincaid, but we did manage to capture him on a hidden security camera. Ms. Palmer?" Doors added, gesturing to her.

Palmer turned the computer screen so that it was facing them and pushed a button on the keyboard, and an image appeared.

The man shown on the screen appeared to be tall - although it was hard to say, because the camera had caught him at an angle - with thinning blond hair, a lean frame, and dark eyes. It was a familiar face, though Sandoval couldn't say exactly who it belonged to - familiar in a very disturbing way.

Then he noticed the date-stamp in the corner of the image, and frowned. "Ms. Palmer, this occurred on Monday. Why are you informing us only now?"

"Because we only just found out," Palmer said irritably. "Whoever this guy is, he managed to evade all of our security systems. The only reason we even have this image is because I've taken the precaution of installing hidden cameras into our high-security labs; cameras that only Mr. Doors and I know about. As a result, we didn't know that anything had happened until Dr. Morneaux came back from his vacation yesterday morning and discovered that his lab had been broken into during his absence. I wanted to have at least a bit more information than that to give you, so I've spent the past twenty-five hours going through all of our security records."

"I see..." Sandoval said thoughtfully. "We'll need a copy of this picture."

"Of course," Doors said.

At Sandoval's nod, Kincaid took out his global and downloaded the image from the screen.

Sandoval looked at Palmer and studied her narrowly for a moment before continuing. "Does this material have any weaknesses?"

"Weaknesses?" Palmer repeated.

"Yes. You said it can block Taelon sensor scans - for how long? Is there any way to defeat it?"

There was a pause, and then Doors picked up a small disk and handed it to him. "Here," Doors said coolly. "This contains the information you need."

Sandoval took it and stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Doors," he said politely. "Major..."

Doors watched as Liam gave himself and Renee a nod before following Agent Sandoval out of the office. His eyes narrowed in anger. "Get Dr. Morneaux up here," he ordered Renee. "I want him moved to the Arctic facility immediately."

Renee nodded in agreement. "What about our intruder?" she asked, gesturing to the screen. "What are we going to do about him?"

"Let Liam and Sandoval deal with him," Doors snapped. Right now, he didn't really give a damn if the alien brat got himself killed. "They want him, they can have him.

"Now, I want to see Dr. Morneaux; we've got to get him out of here before Sandoval decides to start probing further."

Renee nodded and left the office.

Doors sat back in his chair and looked at his computer screen for a minute. Shaking his head, he spoke to the screen. "Well, you've really gone and done it now."

"I have that list for you, Augur," Holo-Lorna said suddenly, interrupting Augur just as he was about to start eating his lunch - a proper lunch, not the sandwich he'd grabbed earlier.

With a sigh, Augur put his fork back down and walked over to his computer. "All right, what does it say?"

"You're not going to like this, Augur," the hologram said, shaking her head.

"Just give me the list," he ordered.

A list of names appeared on the screen in front of him. Scanning down, he frowned slightly as he saw that the bottom name was blinking. "What's that?" he demanded, pointing to it.

"That particular person has tripped the flag you set up on Major Kincaid's military record," Holo-Lorna informed him. "The access was dated 1230 hours today."

Augur looked up at her in surprise. "That was two and a half hours ago!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you let me know when it happened?"

"You were busy at the time," Holo-Lorna replied calmly. "As well, it took me over an hour to trace the access back to its source."

"Which was...?" Augur prodded.

"The FBI computer lab at Quantico," came the reply. "The same source also accessed Major Kincaid's public records yesterday."

"Are there any other sources who have accessed both?" Augur demanded. FBI... that could mean a great deal of trouble for Liam.

"Three," the hologram replied. "Agent Ronald Sandoval of the FBI, Lieutenant Colonel Gary McKenna of the US Army Rangers, and one other that I am currently in the process of tracing."

Augur nodded slowly. "Listen, I want everything we can get on both Lieutenant Colonel McKenna and this," he peered at the screen, "this Andrew Patterson. And as soon as you find out the identity of the other person, on them too," he ordered.

"Right," Holo-Lorna replied. "Beginning search now."

Augur returned to his lunch, but he was too distracted to get much enjoyment from it.

I have a bad feeling about this... Sandoval, the FBI, and the Army... What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now, Liam?

Zo'or looked up from the display he'd been reading as Agent Sandoval and Major Kincaid walked onto the bridge. Neither looked entirely pleased, but Agent Sandoval appeared to be... satisfied about something.

"Agent Sandoval, Major Kincaid... have you made any further progress?" Zo'or asked.

"Yes, we have, Zo'or," Agent Sandoval replied. "We have obtained an image that is most likely that of the assassin - or, at the worst, of one of his associates."

"Excellent," Zo'or declared. "How did you obtain this information?"

Major Kincaid shifted slightly, but it was Agent Sandoval who answered. "It seems that the material that the assassin used to hide from our sensors was an accidental discovery of a scientist working for Doors International."

Zo'or frowned. Was Jonathan Doors continuing his work with the human Resistance?

"They were keeping it in a high-security lab while they attempted to discover exactly how the scientist in question had created it," Agent Sandoval continued. "I was informed that Mr. Doors and Ms. Palmer intended to file a complete report on the material with you as soon as they had discovered that information.

"The material in question was stolen on Monday. It was only just discovered, because the thief managed to elude most of their security cameras. There was one that he apparently missed, however, and Ms. Palmer obtained an image of him, and gave it to us."

"Very good," Zo'or said. "Is there anything else, Agent Sandoval?"

The human hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Actually, Zo'or, there is. Da'an and I believe that the assassin has been--"

"Targeting Major Kincaid," Zo'or finished. He was pleased by the look of surprise that crossed Agent Sandoval's face; it was always pleasant to shock the human. "Yes, I am aware of that theory.

"Da'an also informed me that you would be protecting Major Kincaid until the assassin has been captured," he added.

"I felt it would be wise," Agent Sandoval replied. "After all, it is becoming obvious that we are dealing with a skilled professional; Major Kincaid requires proper protection."

A slight smile crossed Zo'or's face. "I quite agree, Agent Sandoval."

Both Agent Sandoval and Major Kincaid looked openly surprised at that.

"Now, I suggest that you attempt to uncover the identity of the thief," Zo'or continued, and turned away from the humans in dismissal.

As they entered Sandoval's office, Liam automatically sat down in his usual chair, still wondering what was going on.

He was... confused, to put it mildly. The last thing he had expected was for Zo'or to agree to Sandoval's acting as his bodyguard. Zo'or didn't like him - had never liked him - and had even tried to have him killed more than once... Now, suddenly, the Taelon was encouraging Sandoval to protect him?

To make it even more confusing, Sandoval appeared to have been as surprised by Zo'or's response as he had been - which was unusual. Most of the time, Sandoval seemed to know exactly what Zo'or was thinking.

Of course, Sandoval hadn't exactly been acting like his normal self lately either...

It didn't make any sense.

"Major?" Sandoval said pointedly, and Liam realized that he'd been ignoring Sandoval completely - and from his tone of voice, Sandoval had already tried to get his attention more than once.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I just... I'm a little distracted right now."

Sandoval didn't comment on that, merely gestured to his terminal. "If you could download the security record from Doors International..."

Wincing at the sharp tone of his father's voice, Liam obediently took out his global and downloaded the image.

I should get this to Augur, if I can, Liam thought, as Sandoval started up a search. He'll probably have even more luck than Sandoval in getting a match.

"This is likely to take a while," Sandoval said after a moment. He leaned back in his chair and gave Liam a searching look. "There is something I've been meaning to discuss with you, Major."

Uh oh... This doesn't sound too good... "What is it?" Liam asked, hoping his thoughts didn't show on his face.

"You mentioned yesterday morning that you didn't know all that much about the Volunteer pilots," Sandoval said.

Huh? That had to be one of the last things he'd expected Sandoval to talk about! "That's right," Liam replied, deciding to play along. "You know I don't really have much to do with the Volunteers. They're your concern, after all."

"True. However, since..." Sandoval paused for just a moment, and then went on. "Since Captain Marquette's unfortunate demise, I've noticed that the quality of the pilot training has declined. Once you have recovered from your injury, I want you to take charge of that particular program."

Liam stared at Sandoval, his mouth open in astonishment, even as he felt a stab of pain at the memory of Lili's death. "You want me to what?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Why on earth would Sandoval do something like that? It made no sense - especially since Liam knew that Sandoval had suspicions of his involvement with the Resistance.

There had to be a catch to this, somewhere.

"Take charge of the Volunteer pilot training program," Sandoval repeated. "In fact, you can start even before your shoulder heals; the first thing I'd like you to do is find out what the trainers are doing, and then develop ways in which the current methods of instruction can be improved.

"You're one of the best pilots we have, Major, if not the best; and you're also a Companion-Protector," Sandoval continued. "As a result, you are uniquely qualified for this position."

Liam struggled to get his thoughts in order. It was hard; this had come completely out of left field as far as he was concerned.

"Who's in charge right now?" he asked after a moment. It was the first coherent question he could come up with - that he could actually ask, that was.

"Nominally, I am," Sandoval replied. "But I don't know enough about piloting, nor do I have the time, to deal with the difficulties that they're having. You have both.

"I will have to confirm this with Zo'or, of course, but I doubt that there will be any problems."

Liam wasn't so sure he believed that.

But then again... Considering Zo'or's recent behaviour, maybe Sandoval was right.

"So I'm to find areas where the training could stand some improvement, come up with suggestions, and report them to you?" he asked, wanting to be clear on exactly what Sandoval expected of him.

"To start with," Sandoval replied, studying Kincaid carefully.

The Major was still looking a bit stunned at Sandoval's decision. His eyes were wide, and he was rubbing the palm of his right hand - a nervous gesture that Sandoval had noticed quite a few times over the past three days.

"To start with?" Kincaid repeated.

"I said, Major, I want you in charge of the program. Permanently," he added, to emphasize his point.

Kincaid's eyes widened further as he sat back in his chair. "You're sure about this," he said. It was a statement rather than a question, although his tone was disbelieving.

"Yes, Major, I'm quite sure. As I said, you are the best qualified for the position, and it's something that needs doing." Those weren't the only reasons, of course; but they were the ones that would serve to explain his decision to Zo'or. And Sandoval wasn't about to mention the other reasons until he was certain that Kincaid could trusted.

"In fact," he added, taking out his pocket-watch and checking the time, "you can begin right now. There's an orientation session in the main shuttle bay for the newest trainees; it starts in about an hour." He reached into the top drawer of his desk and took out the small disk he'd prepared yesterday afternoon. "This will give you the details of the training program, as well as the records of the instructors and the statistical information on session sizes and failure rates. I want you to study it, and then go to the orientation session."

Kincaid nodded slowly as he took the disk. "All right," he replied. He got up from the chair and picked his global up from Sandoval's desk. "You'll call me if the search turns up anything?"

"Of course, Major," Sandoval said.

He waited until Kincaid had left, closing the door behind him, and then checked his screen to see how the search was doing.

He'd set it up to search the FBI agent database first, followed by the CIA, US Military Intelligence, and then the rest of the US military databases. After that, it would go through the rest of Earth's databases, but Sandoval had the feeling that one of the first four searches would find their man. The sense of familiarity he got when he looked at the picture told him that.

He set the search to run in the background and opened his global, pulling up Zo'or's energy signature.

With any luck, this time he wouldn't be interrupted - and he'd find something. Third time's the charm, they say... he thought, as he ordered the computer to begin a search for all data relating to the hybrid project. Let's just hope that they're right, and I do find something - because if I don't, I have no idea of where to go from here.

Augur had just finished putting away his dishes when his global beeped.

Opening it up, he wasn't surprised to see Liam's face appear. "I was just going to call you," he said.

Liam paused for a moment; he'd obviously been intending to say something, and Augur's comment had taken him off-guard. "You were?" he said finally. "Why?"

"Because you, my friend, are a very popular man," Augur replied. "You've got the Army Rangers, the FBI lab at Quantico, and some hacker from Tennessee all checking out your records. Oh, and Sandoval as well, but that's no surprise."

"No, it's not," Liam said, sighing. "Although I might have some idea of why he was checking them this time... but that's not really important. Listen, has Renee called you?"

"No... I haven't spoken to her since this morning, when I gave her your message," Augur told him. "She was... rather upset, by the way." That was an understatement; in fact, she'd nearly taken his head off. "Why?"

Liam's expression hardened. "She and Doors managed to catch the thief on one of their security cameras," he replied. "She gave Sandoval and I his picture about an hour, hour and a half ago. I was expecting that she would have sent a copy to you as well, so that you could check him out, but I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah, you were. So why don't you send it over now and I'll get started?" Augur suggested.

"Thanks, Augur," Liam replied, in a tone of heartfelt gratitude, and a moment later, an image of a tall man with thinning blond hair and dark eyes appeared on Augur's global.

"I'll get right on it, and I'll give you a call when I've got him, okay?"

"Thanks, Augur," Liam repeated. "I really appreciate this."

He closed the connection.

Augur studied the thief's face for a moment, and then shook his head with a sigh. The things I do for you, kid...

"Sir, there's an incoming call for you."

The man looked up from the article he'd been reading. "Who is it?" he demanded.

"Jonathan Doors, sir."

His mouth tightened. Doors. What was he doing, calling?

"Sir?"

"I'll take it, I'll take it," he said irritably. Picking up his global, he opened it. "Doors," he acknowledged curtly. "What do you want?"

"I want you to lay off Kincaid," Doors replied, equally curt. "And I want the vaile back."

The man shook his head. "No."

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Doors demanded.

His expression hardened. "I know perfectly well what I'm doing, Doors. Do you?"

Doors glared at him. "Kincaid isn't a traitor; he's on our side."

"And just how do you define 'our' side, Doors? Considering your little alliance with Zo'or, I suggest you think carefully about that."

He could see Doors gritting his teeth, and smiled coldly.

"Liam Kincaid is Resistance," the business tycoon said after a moment. "In fact, he's currently the leader of the Resistance."

"You know what, Doors? I don't believe you. It's so obvious that Kincaid is the Taelons' pet, I don't know why you're even bothering to talk to me about it. In fact, I don't know why I'm even bothering to talk to you about it. Goodbye."

Closing the global, he tossed it back on his desk and returned his attention to the article.

Soon, Kincaid... soon.

Liam slipped into the shuttle bay and glanced around. La'nar, one of the Taelon crew that Liam knew in passing, was on traffic control duty; it didn't look to be all that busy at the moment, but Liam knew better than to disturb him.

"Major Kincaid?" came a question from behind him, and he turned to see a Volunteer he recognized from the files that Sandoval had given him. It was Lt. Gregory Benning, the head piloting instructor. "Can I help you with something?"

"Lieutenant Benning, right?" Liam said.

"Yes, sir," the Lieutenant replied.

Liam smiled. "I'm actually here to see you, Lieutenant," he explained. "Agent Sandoval is considering putting me in charge of the pilot training program, and I'd like to get an idea of what the training sessions are like. I was wondering if I could listen in on the orientation session you'll be doing in a few minutes."

Lt. Benning looked surprised. "Of course, Major," he replied. "You're more than welcome to listen - and join in if you would like."

"Thank you," Liam declared. "I think I'll stick to just listening for the moment."

The Lieutenant nodded in understanding. "If you'll follow me, then, sir," he said, leading Liam over to the far end of the shuttle bay, where a strange-looking device was set up in an alcove. "This is where we hold the orientation and preliminary training sessions."

Liam looked around the small area in confusion. He recognized a Taelon console at one end of... whatever this was, and there was a pilot's seat in front of the console... but he had no idea what all the other things were. "What is this?"

Lt. Benning blinked. "It's the shuttle flight simulator, sir," he replied, his tone cautious.

"Flight simulator?" Liam peered at the collection of machinery around the seat. "But I thought that the shuttle interface was an intuitive one."

"It is," Lt. Benning said. His voice sounded strange, and Liam turned to look at him. "However, the trainees still need to learn the basics, and a simulator is the best way to do that."

"I'd like to try it out," Liam began, and then a flash of pain from his shoulder reminded him of the fact that he wasn't allowed to move his arm at the moment. "Later," he added with a grimace, gesturing at the sling he was wearing in explanation.

"Yes, sir," Lt. Benning replied, and then glanced at his global. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, Major, the trainees will be coming through the portal in two minutes, and I need to meet them there."

Liam nodded.

As Benning walked out of the shuttle bay, Liam gave the simulator another curious glance. If this was standard for pilot training, why hadn't Lili ever had him use it? She'd spent a period of two days teaching him how to fly a shuttle after he'd saved Da'an from the replicant, but they'd spent that entire time actually in a shuttle, not in a simulator.

Of course, he'd had Lili instructing him one-on-one, whereas Lt. Benning and the other trainers had classes ranging from 12-19 Volunteers at a time, according to the information Sandoval had given him. That probably made a difference.

Glancing at his watch, Liam estimated that he had about three to five minutes left before Lt. Benning came back with the trainees - just enough time to give his shuttle a quick check. Even if he couldn't fly it at the moment, he still liked to check it daily - a habit he'd gotten into after Doors' sabotage had sent Augur and himself to Maiya's dimension.

Sitting down in the pilot's seat, he called up the controls and ran a quick systems check.

Everything appeared to be working perfectly, and Liam got up just as Lt. Benning led a group of about 16 Volunteers into the shuttle bay. As they passed his shuttle, he followed them, and ended up standing inconspicuously at the back of the group as they gathered around the simulator.

Volunteer Gayle Johnson looked around curiously as their group entered the shuttle bay. She'd never been on the mothership before, and she'd found the short journey from the ID portal to the shuttle bay absolutely fascinating.

The shuttle bay was large, with shuttles docked everywhere. Right next to the entrance they'd come in by was a Taelon seated in a bizarre-looking sphere of energy. Gayle wondered what he was doing.

Their instructor, Lt. Benning, led them over to the far end of the shuttle bay. In one corner was a very strange-looking machine, consisting of an unusual-shaped chair, a console, and a metal decking under them, with bits and pieces of machinery under the decking.

"What's that?" came a question from one of her fellow trainees. Based on his accent, he was from Australia, Gayle decided. Well, Australia or New Zealand. She'd never been able to hear the difference between the accents, although her college roommate, who had been from New Zealand, had insisted that there was one.

"This, Volunteers, is a shuttle flight simulator. Before you are allowed to sit yourself in a real pilot's seat, you will all have to satisfy me that you can get through the worst of the simulator programs without destroying your shuttle, your passengers, or yourself. This generally takes a week and a half to two weeks with an implant; without an implant, it can take up to three weeks, or sometimes longer." He looked at all of them. "Well, since we have no implants in this class, it looks like you'll all be scheduled for about three weeks with this baby.

"Then, after you've proved yourself capable of avoiding an absolute disaster in the simulator, we let you try it in a real shuttle."

"Sir," spoke up another trainee - Gayle's friend from Basic Training, Aaron Greene - "what happens if we don't get it in three weeks?"

"Then, Private..." Lt. Benning consulted his global, "Greene, either we figure out what you're doing wrong, or you're not meant to be a pilot.

"Which brings up my second point. The average size of a class at the beginning is fifteen Volunteers. The average size of a graduating class is four.

"You all possess excellent reflexes and an ability to interface easily with Taelon technology, according to the preliminary tests you passed to be in this class. Nonetheless, it's likely that only a quarter to a third of you will actually become shuttle pilots. That's because none of the tests we can give you can accurately predict your reactions in some of the situations that you could find yourself in as pilots. Aside from teaching you how to maneuver a shuttle, the actual mechanics of piloting, that's what the simulator does. Throws you into a situation where you have to make a number of rapid decisions - decisions that could mean life and death. What we are looking for are people - Volunteers - who can do this consistently and successfully.

"This is where most of you will fail. You aren't necessarily expected to handle every simulation perfectly - and you won't even be confronted by these simulations at the beginning - but by the time three weeks are up, you will be expected to perform consistently well.

"Are there any more questions right now?"

There were a few headshakes, but most of them stayed silent.

"Good."

Lieutenant Benning stepped up onto the metal decking. "As I said," he began, "this is the shuttle flight simulator. It was created by the same team that worked on the human interface for the shuttles, and as a result, is one of the best training tools we have. This seat here," he gestured to the unusual-shaped chair, "is a pilot's seat. It's designed to give the pilot maximum flexibility and maneuverability, while at the same time providing sufficient protection in the case of a crash. And believe me, even the best pilots can crash. All it takes is being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Now," he continued, as he waved his hand over the console and brought up a large screen with a set of strange images on it, "this console is designed to mimic a shuttle's controls, as well as the view you would have out the front. Every time you do anything to the controls, the simulator will move in response. Like this."

The Lieutenant sat down in the seat and placed his hands against the console screen. Then he made a movement with his left hand, and the decking tilted to one side. He reversed the movement, straightening the simulator back out, and then pulled his hands away.

"A shuttle's controls are extremely responsive," he said. "When we start you out on the simulator, there will be a half-second delay between your movement and that of the 'shuttle'. By the end of your first week, the 'shuttle' will be moving exactly as you do. It's at that point that we will start putting you into scenarios that you will have to deal with."

Before he could continue, there was a sudden beep from the back of the group. Gayle recognized it as a global, and she, like all the others, turned to look.

Standing by the entrance to the alcove holding the simulator was a tall, youthful man with spiky brown hair and one arm in a sling. He looked a bit embarrassed at having suddenly become the centre of attention.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Benning," he said apologetically.

"No harm done, Major," the Lieutenant replied - a bit distantly, Gayle thought.

The man - whom Gayle suddenly realized was Major Kincaid, Da'an's Protector - nodded to Lt. Benning and then turned and walked out of the shuttle bay.

"Atten-hut!" the Lieutenant called sharply from behind them, and Gayle automatically came to attention, facing Lt. Benning, as did the rest of the class.

"However inadvertently, the Major has provided me with the perfect example to make my next point.

"When his global went off, you all turned to look at him; and continued to focus your attention on him until I called you to attention. As pilots, you will be expected to recognize events that are unimportant - such as someone else's global going off - and ignore them; you must focus on those events that will impact your shuttle, your passengers and you. Too much attention paid to distractions can quite easily get you killed.

"Now..."

Liam slipped out of the shuttle bay, still feeling the heat of embarrassment in his cheeks. Sighing, he opened his global. He was seriously hoping that it was either Augur or Sandoval with news about the thief. If it was anyone else, it would probably mean that something else had gone wrong - which was not something he was in the mood to hear right now.

Augur's worried face graced the small screen.

"Augur? What is it?"

"Your instincts were right on the money with this, Liam," the hacker said.

Liam gave him a puzzled look, not understanding what Augur was getting at.

"On a hunch, I checked the image you sent me from Doors' security records against the files of the people that have accessed your records. I came up with a match."

"You did? Who is it?" Liam demanded.

Augur's mouth tightened. "This is the bad news, Liam; your thief - and most likely assassin as well - is Lieutenant Colonel Gary McKenna, US Army Rangers. I did a bit more poking around on him - that's why it's taken me this long to get back to you - and I don't like what I've found."

"Go on," Liam said slowly, a chill stealing through him. He now had a name - the name of someone who wanted to kill him. It was a terrifying feeling.

Yes, he'd had people try to kill him before. Hell, Zo'or and Sandoval had tried to kill him on a number of occasions!

The difference was, though, that he'd always known why before. There'd always been an obvious reason. But this... he'd never even heard of Lieutenant Colonel McKenna before!

"Liam, this guy is an expert marksman - he's rarely, if ever, missed a target he's aimed at, especially when using a sniper's rifle. I don't know how he missed you on Wednesday, but you've been damn lucky so far," Augur declared.

Liam took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Thanks, Augur. Can you upload the information into my global?"

Augur nodded, and Liam watched as text scrolled rapidly up his screen for a moment before Augur's face returned. "Done," the hacker said.

"Thanks again. I've got to go tell Sandoval about this," Liam said.

Augur nodded again. Then, just before he cut the communication, he said quietly, his tone one of concern, "Be careful, Liam."

Liam paused for a moment, looking at the blank screen, and then closed his global.

He was just about to head toward Sandoval's office when his global beeped a second time.

Opening it, Liam was surprised to see his father.

"Major, I've found our thief," were the first words out of Sandoval's mouth.

Liam blinked. "You did?" he repeated. He hadn't expected Sandoval to find the man as quickly as Augur had.

Sandoval nodded, his expression sober. "His name is Gary McKenna; he's a lieutenant colonel in the Army Rangers. I met him a couple of times during the S.I. War, although I didn't recognize him immediately. He's an expert in intelligence gathering - which is how I met him - and assassination.

"I think you'd better come to my office, Major. We're going to have to come up with something - quickly."

Liam closed his global slowly, half expecting it to go off again. When it didn't, he started walking toward Sandoval's office.

When he arrived, Sandoval was talking to someone on his global. From the sound of it, they were discussing the whereabouts of Lt. Col. McKenna. Sandoval gestured for him to sit down and continued talking.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Liam couldn't hear what the person on the other end said, but he saw the results in Sandoval's expression as his father scowled.

"Thank you, General," Sandoval said then, his tone cool but surprisingly - to Liam - polite. "I appreciate the help."

Closing his global, he looked up at Liam. "That was General Prescott," he said.

Liam nodded in understanding - General Prescott was the commander of the Rangers. That explained Sandoval's courtesy. "Did he have any information on Colonel McKenna?"

Sandoval sighed. "Not much," he replied. "He was assigned to the military base the US Army maintains in Peru, but he's apparently been AWOL for the past two weeks. They have no idea where he went, or why."

"Until now," Liam added.

Sandoval nodded. "Until now," he confirmed. He leaned back in his chair. "We need a strategy to catch him, Major - and quickly. This man is not the kind of person we can leave running around."

"Trust me, Sandoval, I know. I'm his target, remember," Liam replied irritably. He frowned and started scratching his right palm - it was beginning to itch again. And his last dose of painkillers - which he'd taken just before he'd told Sandoval about the vaile - was wearing off. "I'm sorry, Sandoval, but I'm absolutely exhausted. I can't think of anything right now."

Sandoval studied him for a moment, frowning. Then he looked at his pocket-watch. "It's almost six o'clock. Why don't we get something to eat at the commissary, and then head down to the Embassy?"

"Sounds good," Liam said. Come to think of it, he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast this morning - no wonder he wasn't thinking straight!

Sandoval nodded and stood up. "In that case, let's go."

Liam balanced his tray awkwardly in one hand as he skirted several groups of Volunteers and arrived at the table Sandoval had picked out for them. It was in one corner of the commissary, and both seats had their backs to the walls. Perfect, Liam thought, as he put his tray down on the table and slipped into the seat his father had left free. Especially right now, when we're both so security conscious.

"So," Sandoval began, as soon as he was seated, "what did you think of the orientation lecture?"

A bit relieved that Sandoval was willing to choose a neutral topic to discuss over dinner, Liam sighed as he replied, "I wasn't really all that impressed. Between that and what I've managed to read of the files you gave me, I think you're right about there being a problem, and I've come up with a few ideas on how to get my investigation started."

"Oh?" Sandoval prodded, sounding genuinely interested.

Liam nodded as he picked up his fork and poked at a carrot. "The first thing I want to do is talk to some of the pilots who qualified under Lil-- Captain Marquette's command, and some of those who've qualified since then," he explained. "I also want to talk to some of the Volunteers who failed from both periods, and maybe put a few of them through that simulator myself." He checked his watch, and then reached into his pocket, pulled out the bottle of painkillers, and took out four. Putting them in his mouth, he grimaced at the taste and quickly took a sip of water to wash them down with.

Sandoval frowned at him. "Four?"

Liam tilted his head - the closest he could come to shrugging without hurting his shoulder. "That's how many Dr. Park said to take until tomorrow morning," he replied.

His father's frown deepened. "It seems a bit excessive," he commented.

Liam worried at his lower lip for a moment. He couldn't exactly tell Sandoval that it was safe enough because of his part-Kimeran metabolism. "It's only until tomorrow," he repeated. "She said not to take that dosage for more than forty-eight hours."

Sandoval nodded, looking a bit happier. "Just make sure you're careful," he ordered. "The last thing you need right now is to be dopey from the painkillers."

Yes, Father; I do know that... Liam thought, turning his attention to his dinner. He really was quite hungry.

"So," Sandoval continued, turning the topic back to the pilot training program, "the simulator they're using now - is it the same one Captain Marquette trained you on?"

"Oh, I never used the simulator," Kincaid replied absently, most of his attention focused on trying to mash his potatoes without being able to use his right hand. "Lili took me out in her shuttle and taught me to fly it directly. It took me two days to get it right."

Sandoval stared at Kincaid in a combination of shock and surprise.

Admittedly, he didn't know all that much about piloting, much less pilot training - he'd said as much to Kincaid earlier. But when he'd discovered a few months ago that the training program was having problems, he'd read through all the procedures Captain Marquette had set up, to see if he could figure out where the difficulties were arising. One of those procedures had been that trainees were required to spend a minimum of a week to a week and a half using the simulator before graduating to actual shuttles.

And according to Kincaid's file, he'd never been a pilot before coming to work for the Taelons; if he had been, that might have been an understandable reason for Marquette to have skipped his simulator training. So, since he hadn't been, why had she done that?

He absently started eating, paying no attention to the taste of his food.

Major Kincaid had been a puzzle from the beginning, though it was only over the last few days that Sandoval had realized just how much of an enigma he really was. An enigma that Captain Marquette had obviously known more about than he did. What Kincaid had just told him made that clear.

I just hope Andrew can come up with some answers for me, Sandoval thought with a sigh. Just who are you really, Kincaid?

Putting his fork down, he was surprised to realize that he'd finished his meal. He checked his pocket-watch, and was even more surprised to find that it was already a quarter to seven.

Turning his attention back to Kincaid, he noticed that the Major had also finished his dinner, and was currently staring off into space, a look of exhaustion on his face.

Sandoval wasn't all that surprised at Kincaid's exhaustion; between the events of the past couple of days, the near-miss this morning, the busy day they'd had, and the painkillers the Major was taking, the surprise was that Kincaid hadn't collapsed hours ago.

And he's not the only one who's tired, Sandoval admitted to himself. It had only been this morning that he'd found out that his son was most likely a hybrid, and he'd spent the entire day trying to deal both with that and with the search for the assassin. Looks like a plan is going to have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I'll just alert the Volunteers to be on the lookout for McKenna.

"Liam," he said, reaching over and giving Kincaid's left shoulder a little shake.

Kincaid blinked and then slowly focused on him. "Sorry, Sandoval," he said, yawning. "What did you say?"

"I think it's about time we called it a day, Major," Sandoval replied. "We're both tired, and it would probably be much better to wait until we've had some sleep before trying to come up with anything to deal with Lieutenant Colonel McKenna."

Kincaid rubbed his eyes with his left hand. "I think you're right," he mumbled. "I definitely need some sleep... I'll call Roberts and ask him to take me back down."

Sandoval just looked at him for a moment. "Major, you'll be staying on board the mothership tonight," he said firmly. "You can sleep in one of the Volunteer barracks rooms."

Kincaid shook his head carefully, a stubborn expression crossing his face. "Uh uh. I am not staying on the mothership all night. Besides, I'll sleep better at home."

Sandoval tried to rein in his exasperation with the younger man. Remember, Sandoval, he's exhausted - he's not thinking straight. "Listen to yourself, Major," he said with exaggerated patience. "You are currently the target of a professional assassin. That means that your apartment is the last place you should be going."

For just a moment, Kincaid looked remarkably like a sulky child. Then he took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "I don't want to stay on the mothership," he repeated.

"Then we'll stay at the Embassy," Sandoval replied calmly, standing up and collecting both their trays. "I'll be right back, Major."

Liam opened his mouth, ready to protest, and then closed it again when he realized he had no idea what to say. Sandoval was right, after all; when taken in context, his desire to go home to sleep was... well... not that bright an idea. And he couldn't think of any counter-arguments to staying at the Embassy; he felt almost too tired to think at all.

The exhaustion had hit suddenly, partway through dinner. One minute he'd been tired, but awake enough to be thinking of questions to ask Cpl. Roberts about his training; the next, a wave of fatigue had washed over him, and he hadn't been consciously aware of anything else until Sandoval had shaken him.

"Major?" Sandoval said, and Liam realized that his father was standing next to him, obviously waiting for him to get up.

Yawning, he got himself to his feet, and then winced in pain as his right shoulder impacted against the wall. The only good thing about the pain was that it kept him awake enough to follow Sandoval through the corridors of the mothership to the shuttle.

The entire shuttle trip passed in a blur; by the time they landed outside the Embassy, the pain had faded enough that he was only distantly aware of Sandoval talking quietly to the Embassy guards.

He managed to fight the exhaustion off long enough for Sandoval to lead him to a room he'd never seen before, then walk in and sit down on the small cot.

Rubbing his eyes, Liam peered blearily at Sandoval, who was still standing in the doorway. "G'night," he mumbled.

Sandoval seemed to smile faintly at him - or maybe it was just his over-tired imagination, combined with wishful thinking. "Good night, Liam," his father replied. "I'll see you in the morning." Then he left, letting the door close behind him.

Liam yawned again, and then managed to toe his shoes off and lie down. His last thought before sleep overwhelmed him was, Liam. He called me 'Liam' twice tonight.

Sandoval made a quick tour of the Embassy, stopping to speak to each of the Volunteers guarding the building in order to update them on both the assassin's identity and the fact that his target was Major Kincaid. He was interested to note the anger with which the guards reacted when he revealed the true target; it was obvious that they held a great deal of respect and admiration for Kincaid. And loyalty.

It was a good sign; if Kincaid was able to unknowingly inspire that sort of reaction in Volunteers that he interacted with only because they all worked in the Washington Embassy, it was more than likely that he'd be able to do the same with the pilots when he was put in charge of them. The training program would be the first step.

He finished his check of the Embassy, and found himself outside the Major's door.

Quietly opening the door, Sandoval looked in, wanting to make sure that Kincaid had gotten to sleep - And to make sure he's all right, he added to himself. Sandoval sighed; he still didn't understand where this concern for Liam was coming from. It seemed to be something almost instinctive, buried deep within him.

He felt a wry smile cross his face as he assessed the sight that greeted him. Kincaid was curled up on the small cot, lying on his left side. He was still wearing his jacket - obviously he'd fallen asleep before removing it - and the blankets were still folded at the bottom of the cot.

With another sigh, Sandoval entered the room and walked over to the cot. He picked up the blankets, unfolded them, and put them over Kincaid's sleeping form - careful not to jar the Major's right arm, which was still resting in its sling.

"Good night, Liam," he repeated softly. "Sleep well."

Then he left, closing the door softly behind him.

Sandoval sat down at Major Kincaid's desk and fought back a yawn. Despite his intentions to go to sleep early last night, he'd ended up spending several hours both reviewing the non-existent results of his search of the mothership mainframe - in an effort to come up with another line of inquiry to help him find his son - and trying to come up with a plan to entrap McKenna. Both efforts had proved futile.

As a result, however, he hadn't gotten to sleep until two a.m. this morning, and he'd woken up at seven, having had that dream again.

Why do I keep having that same damn dream? And what the hell do Beckett and Kincaid have to do with my son?

He rubbed his hands over his face, tired. He was having trouble maintaining his usual impassive façade - he'd already let it slip a number of times with Kincaid over the past few days - but he couldn't afford to lose control now. There was too much at stake.

Opening a datastream, he called the mothership.

"Agent Sandoval," Zo'or greeted him. "I received your information on the identity of the assassin. Have you and Major Kincaid come up with a strategy to deal with this Lieutenant Colonel McKenna yet?"

"I'm afraid not, Zo'or. Major Kincaid is still asleep; I left instructions that he was not to be disturbed, as he requires the rest. As soon as he wakes up, I will be discussing it with him," Sandoval replied calmly.

"Very well," Zo'or said. "Please inform me as soon as you have a plan."

"Of course, Zo'or," Sandoval replied obediently. "There is, however, one other thing that I wished to discuss with you."

"And that is?"

Sandoval kept tight control over his expression and tone of voice, not wanting Zo'or to have any reason to question either his suggestion or his motivation. "I have been thinking about the problems that the Volunteer pilot training program has been having lately, and I believe that I have come up with a solution," he stated.

"You have? And what is this solution?" Zo'or demanded.

"Place Major Kincaid in charge of the training program," Sandoval replied. "He is a trained pilot, and a Companion-Protector. As such, he is perfectly qualified for that position."

Zo'or looked thoughtful. "I see," he said slowly. Then he looked at Sandoval, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you willing to permit the pilots to be completely outside the regular chain of command?"

It was a bit of an effort to keep the frown he felt off his face, but Sandoval managed it. He hadn't said anything about the rest of the piloting program - that was the next step of his plan - just the training. Where was Zo'or going with this?

"Yes," he replied aloud. "I am well aware of the fact that I am not able to utilize the pilots to their full effectiveness, as I am not a pilot myself."

"In that case, Agent Sandoval, it is an excellent suggestion. Put Major Kincaid in charge of the pilots - all of them," Zo'or added, to Sandoval's surprise, "not just the trainees. If he is capable of handling the training program, he is capable of handling the rest."

That wasn't necessarily true, although Sandoval was confident that in Kincaid's case the abilities were there, but he wasn't about to argue with Zo'or about it. Not when he'd just gotten something that he'd thought it would take him several months to convince the Synod Leader to give him. "Of course, Zo'or," he said again.

"Very well. Inform me as soon as you have developed your plan to catch the assassin," Zo'or said, and closed the datastream.

What is he up to? Sandoval wondered, staring at the spot where the datastream had been. Why is he suddenly so interested in Kincaid? What is going on?

Liam opened his eyes and blinked, confused, as he took in the strange surroundings. This wasn't his room. Where was he? And how had he gotten here... wherever here was?

After a moment, memory slipped back into place. He was in the Embassy; Sandoval had been adamant about staying either here or on the mothership last night, and he really hadn't wanted to stay on the mothership.

He sat up, wincing as the movement sent a jolt of agony through his shoulder, and then stared at the blankets that had been covering him. He didn't remember pulling them up; in fact, the last thing he remembered from last night was Sandoval saying good night, and then kicking his shoes off and lying down. So how...

Never mind, Liam, it's not important. Just get up.

Standing up, he carefully adjusted his sling, and then slipped into his shoes. Wincing again - this time at the thought of how rumpled he probably looked - he opened the door... and almost jumped back in surprise when he came face-to-face with the Volunteer standing outside.

It was Private Lannart, one of the regular Embassy guards - but what was he doing outside Liam's room?

"Major," the Volunteer said, saluting.

Liam frowned. "What's going on, Private Lannart?" he demanded. His frown deepened as he recalled this week's duty schedule. "Aren't you supposed to be off-duty at the moment?"

"Yes, sir, originally I was," Lannart replied. "Although my shift starts in just over an hour, Major," he added.

Liam looked at his watch, and blinked in surprise. Lannart was right; it was almost eleven o'clock. He'd slept for almost sixteen hours? How had that happened?

Then his attention was pulled back to Lannart as the Volunteer shifted. "Major, Agent Sandoval is in Da'an's office. He requested you meet him there as soon as you woke up."

Liam nodded. "Thank you," he said, and started walking in the direction of Da'an's office. A moment later he stopped, frowning, as he noticed Lannart trailing behind him. "Private?"

"Agent Sandoval's orders, sir," the Volunteer replied calmly. "With a professional assassin on the loose and targeting you, he ordered that you have at least one of us with you whenever he is busy elsewhere."

Liam blinked, and then muttered a particularly nasty Gaelic curse under his breath. "Of all the ridiculous... This is a Taelon Embassy, for goodness sake! How does Agent Sandoval think an assassin could possibly get in here? There are guards on every entrance!"

Lannart shrugged. "I have my orders, sir," was all he said.

"Fine, fine," Liam muttered, as he resumed walking - a bit faster, this time. "I'll take this up with Agent Sandoval myself."

He strode into Da'an's - and his - office to find Sandoval sitting at his desk, and was just about to demand an explanation for the sudden Volunteer bodyguard when his global went off.

Hoping that it wasn't anyone important - he wasn't in the most diplomatic of moods at the moment - he opened it. It wasn't a call; it was an automatic message he'd sent to himself... and as he read it, his eyes widened as an idea suddenly occurred to him.

"I know how we can lay our trap!" he exclaimed excitedly, looking up from the blinking screen to meet Sandoval's eyes.

Sandoval gave him a questioning look.

In response, Liam gestured with his global. "Da'an's attending a Native American cultural festival tomorrow in Arizona," he explained. "I've made a habit of having my global remind me of his engagements a day beforehand so that I have plenty of time to review the security arrangements. Zo'or doesn't have anything scheduled for then, so I was still going to accompany Da'an. We can set our trap for McKenna there!"

Sandoval didn't look quite as enthusiastic about the idea as Liam felt. "Da'an has been to these sorts of ceremonies before, Major," he pointed out. "There's always a great deal of open ground, and a great many people."

"That's easy enough to deal with," Liam replied confidently. "You're right about there being a lot of open ground, but that will reduce McKenna's potential hiding places and should make it easier for a shuttle flying overhead to pinpoint his location. As for the crowd, I'll put myself on perimeter duty. That way, we can get him to attack when and where we want him to."

Sandoval frowned, his expression uncertain. "There are several glaringly obvious holes in that plan, Major. How are we supposed to manoeuvre him into the position we want him in?"

Liam grinned. "We've got all day to work on this, Sandoval. I'm sure we can figure it out." He came around his desk, and Sandoval stood up and moved out of his way. "I've got a map of the grounds here," he continued, logging on to the mainframe and pulling it up. "This is how the various activities are going to be set up..."

They spent the next hour and a half working on it, ironing the wrinkles out of the plan, until Sandoval appeared to be as satisfied with it as Liam was. It was still risky, but they'd managed to reduce the risk to the point where Sandoval was willing to allow him to take the chance.

I still don't understand what's going on with him, Liam reflected as he leaned back in his chair and watched Sandoval scowl thoughtfully at the map and the security stations they'd set up on it. Absently scratching his left palm, he frowned. I really don't understand it. Why is he suddenly so concerned for me? His concern is genuine - I can tell that much. But... I want to understand. I need to understand. Where is it coming from?

And why, he added to himself, his frown deepening as he sat up, has he got the Volunteers playing bodyguard inside the Embassy?

"Sandoval?" he said aloud.

"What is it, Liam?" Sandoval asked, his tone absentminded as he leaned forward in the chair Lannart had brought in for him, touched the screen and shifted the position of one of the security stations by a few centimetres on the map.

And that's another thing, Liam thought, scratching harder as the itch started to get worse. He's been calling me 'Liam' an awful lot lately. I wonder... has he figured it out?

No, he decided a moment later, I don't think he has. He would have reacted - one way or the other - if he had.

Keeping his expression neutral, Liam asked, "What's up with the Volunteer bodyguard? Private Lannart escorted me from the room I slept in to here, and was standing guard just outside the door until his shift started half an hour ago - when he was replaced by Corporal Standings."

Sandoval looked at him. "They're concerned," he replied.

Concern. It all seems to come back to that. "Why?" Liam asked. He hadn't exactly gone out of his way to ingratiate himself with most Volunteers; he didn't particularly care for their actions in enforcing Zo'or and the Synod's will on Earth, and it wasn't an attitude he bothered to hide.

Sandoval looked at the Major in surprise. Didn't Kincaid realize how much the Embassy guards respected and liked him?

Evidently not - he was looking more than a bit confused by Sandoval's explanation.

"They have a great deal of respect for you, Major," Sandoval said.

Kincaid still looked confused. "They do? But... we hardly know each other. I mean, they work here in the Embassy, of course, but I spend most of my time here with Da'an, and I don't deal with them all that much. You're in charge of the Volunteers - the only authority I have with them is what you give me."

Sandoval sighed. In some ways, Kincaid was far wiser than his age suggested; in others, he was so utterly naïve that his reactions were almost like those of a child. This was one of the latter.

"Major, you haven't moved from your desk since we started working on this plan of yours," Sandoval said. "How did you know when Private Lannart's official shift started; and how did you know who replaced him?"

"I review the duty shift every week," Kincaid replied. "It is part of my job as Da'an's Protector, Sandoval. And as for Corporal Standings, I know all the regular Embassy guards by sight."

"And you greet them by name whenever you meet them in the halls," Sandoval added - it was one of things he'd noticed about Kincaid.

"Of course," the Major replied.

"Everyone appreciates that sort of courtesy and respect, Major," Sandoval pointed out. "And most people treat the Volunteers either like cannon fodder, or pariahs." He'd been guilty of the former more than a few times. "You have no need to treat them with respect - you are a Companion-Protector, and even if you're not in the direct chain of command, you do outrank them. They know that. So when you treat them with respect, they are going to respect you. It's as simple as that.

"Oh, and speaking of chains of command," he added, stepping away from the map and turning to face Kincaid completely. The Major was rubbing at his palms again, Sandoval noticed. Was something wrong?

"What?" Kincaid prodded.

Oh, right, chains of command. "I spoke to Zo'or this morning about putting you in charge of the pilot training."

"And he said, 'no way', right?" Kincaid said, only half-joking.

Sandoval shook his head. "Actually, he thought it was an excellent idea, Major," he replied.

Kincaid looked as surprised as Sandoval had felt, if not more so. His mouth fell open as he stared at Sandoval. "He... what?"

"Thought it was an excellent idea," Sandoval repeated. "In fact, he decided to take it a step farther."

Kincaid gave him a wary look. "What does that mean?"

"It means that as of Monday week, you will be in charge of all the pilots."

"All the pilots," Kincaid repeated blankly.

Sandoval nodded. "They will be removed from the regular Volunteer chain of command, and placed directly under you. You're going to have a great deal of work to do over the next several days, Major," he added. "You're going to have to decide on the hierarchy of your new command, and develop a set of procedures and regulations that will apply specifically to pilots..."

Kincaid groaned. "Just what I need - more paperwork," he muttered. "The pile I've still got somewhere around here is bad enough..."

Actually, Sandoval hadn't considered that aspect of it. This could even mean that his paperwork would decrease... a very pleasant prospect.

"You're smiling," Kincaid said suspiciously. "Why are you smiling like that, Sandoval?"

Sandoval quickly wiped the smile from his face, not wanting to get into a discussion over paperwork right now. "It's nothing, Major," he replied innocently.

Kincaid looked as though he was about to argue with that, but before he could say anything, his stomach suddenly growled. He flushed bright red in embarrassment as Sandoval grinned.

"Hungry?"

"Yeah..." Kincaid mumbled. The flush slowly started to fade from his cheeks. "You know, there's this great little restaurant just a couple of blocks away..." His voice trailed off as Sandoval looked at him.

"Major," he said pointedly.

Kincaid used his left hand to push his chair away from the desk. "I don't want to stay cooped up in here for the next twenty hours, Sandoval," he protested. "I'll go stir-crazy!"

Sandoval felt his expression darken with anger. "And if you go out, you could quite easily end up dead," he retorted sharply. "Which do you prefer?"

Kincaid paled. After a moment, he said tightly, "I'll stay here."

Sandoval nodded in satisfaction, and made a peace-offering. "If you'll tell me how to get to this restaurant, I'll pick us up some take-out and come back here."

"All right," Kincaid replied, his tone still sullen. He grabbed a piece of scrap paper and, carefully using his left hand, wrote out the directions and what he wanted. "Their souvlaki is very good," he offered as he handed the paper to Sandoval.

"I'll take that under advisement," Sandoval replied. He glanced at the paper, reading the directions, then slipped it into his jacket pocket as he started for the exit, ignoring the nagging familiarity he felt over the handwriting.

He stopped for a moment just outside Da'an's office to speak to Corporal Standings. "I should be back in about twenty to thirty minutes," he told the Volunteer. "Please keep a close eye on the Major while I'm gone; I don't want him leaving the Embassy."

The Volunteer saluted, smiling, and in a reassuring tone said, "Yes, sir! And don't worry, sir - we'll make sure nothing happens to Major Kincaid."

Sandoval gave him a nod. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"You're welcome, sir," the Volunteer replied, as Sandoval started away.

"Oh, man..." Andrew Patterson murmured as the file he'd been after for the past several hours finally appeared on the screen. The number of traps he'd had to get past to reach this had told him that it was of major importance... but he'd had no idea that it was this big!

Reading through the file, he shook his head slowly. "Oh, man..." he repeated.

Do you have any idea what you're getting into with this, Ron? And how much does your Major Kincaid know about this? Does he know what's going on?

"This is big, Ron. Really, really big," he muttered, as he set the file to print on his old laser printer. No way was he going to trust this to a global. It was too big, and too dangerous. Paper - paper that could be shredded as soon as he'd shown it to Ron - was definitely the safest way to go.

Especially if Ron's Major Kincaid was involved, and his hacker-friend Augur as well...

Definitely the safest.

Liam sighed as he leaned back in his chair and glared sullenly at his terminal.

Sandoval was right, of course - for all they knew, McKenna could be just outside the Embassy. Personally, Liam didn't think so - but he was well aware that he didn't know enough about the man to be able to say for certain. So yes, the wisest thing to do would be to stay right here, in the Embassy, safe.

That didn't mean he had to like it, though. And he most definitely hated it. As he'd told his father, he'd go stir crazy before long - being trapped in one place, even if it really was for his own good, made him nervous. It was much too reminiscent of his nightmares, of what Zo'or and the Synod would do to him if they ever found out who he really was...

And that kind of thought isn't helping, he thought irritably. You're not 'trapped' here; think of it as protective custody.

Right. Like that's going to make much of a difference in the way I'm feeling...

Sighing again, Liam turned his attention to his desk, looking for something - anything - to do to keep him distracted.

Then he remembered what Sandoval had said, about Zo'or deciding to put him in charge of the shuttle pilots... and remembering some of the questions he'd come up with after listening to Lt. Benning's lecture, he decided that if he was going to take command by Monday week, he'd better have some plans in place for what he wanted to do.

Leaning forward, he opened a connection from his terminal to the mothership mainframe, and began looking for the names and current status of all Volunteers who'd had even a minimal amount of pilot training. The first thing he'd do would be to check into the training program, since he'd already developed the outline of a plan to deal with that... and while he was talking to the pilots who'd passed the training, he could always slip in a few questions about current conditions for the pilots.

Liam wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed when a brown paper bag was suddenly thumped onto the desk in front of him, breaking his concentration. He jumped, startled, and looked up to see Sandoval standing there, watching him quizzically.

"Sandoval! I didn't hear you come in!" he exclaimed.

"I noticed that," Sandoval replied dryly. "What's got you so occupied?"

"I'm working out exactly what I need to ask the Volunteers who've failed the pilot training in order to get an idea of what Lt. Benning and his people are doing," Liam explained, as Sandoval sat down opposite him, and started taking food out of the bag he still held. Liam was amused to realize that his father had taken his advice and gotten the souvlaki - it was something that Sandoval particularly enjoyed.

"I've made arrangements to speak to about forty from each time period over the next week, so that I get a good representative sample," he continued. "I'm also going to be talking to the pilots that succeeded in their training over that same period of time, but I've got a different set of questions to ask them."

Sandoval nodded, and then gestured to the bag, which Liam still hadn't touched. "Eat - you're the one whose stomach was growling," he ordered.

Oh, thanks, Father, Liam thought sardonically. "What did you get me?"

"Just what you asked for; a club sandwich - with Swiss cheese and mayonnaise - fries, and a salad," Sandoval replied. He gave Liam a slight grin. "I gather you go there often. As soon as I gave the order, the waitress asked me how you were. She said she'd seen Wednesday's shooting on television and was concerned."

Liam tilted his head in a shrugging motion as he opened his bag and took out his sandwich, fries and salad. "The food is excellent, and I like the atmosphere," he replied.

"Anyway," he continued, returning to the matter of his new command, "after we talk to Da'an and Zo'or about the plan, I'm going to call Corporal Roberts and get him to come in. He's an excellent pilot, and seems to have good judgement; I'd like to find out what he thinks."

Sandoval nodded. "Excellent," he replied.

"Then," Liam added, heaving a sigh, "I'm going to do paperwork. And more paperwork. And possibly a bit more, depending on how long it takes me."

Sandoval's mouth twitched as he tried not to grin. "Sounds like you've got a busy afternoon ahead of you."

Liam scowled for a moment, remembering exactly why he was going to be doing so much paperwork. "Yeah, well, I don't really have anywhere else I can go," he pointed out, "so I might as well keep myself occupied."

"It's--" Sandoval began.

"--For my own good," Liam finished irritably. Then, taking a deep breath, he managed to regain control of himself. The whole point of keeping so busy this afternoon was to avoid getting into that sort of mood. He tilted his head again. "I'm just not looking forward to being buried in paper. Is it possible for someone to suffocate that way?"

Sandoval chuckled, and then pointed to Liam's sandwich. "Eat."

A hint of mischieviousness combined with the longing Liam had been keeping in check for far too long, and he made himself grin as he replied, "Yes, Dad."

The expression on Sandoval's face was actually almost funny as he stared, and Liam forced his grin wider as he obediently bit into his sandwich.

Then Sandoval smiled faintly in response, and Liam relaxed, even as he wondered at himself. Why had he done that?

Because that's what you want to do - for real, came the thought. And if you drop enough hints, he might just figure it out himself...

But then what would he do?

Shaking his head in an unconscious effort to push the thoughts away, Liam returned his attention to Sandoval. "So, how are we going to explain the plan to Da'an and Zo'or?"

Renee stared glumly out the window of the small plane. There was nothing to see but endless kilometres of empty land, but since that particular landscape suited her bleak mood perfectly, she didn't mind.

To say that she was unhappy would be a gross understatement. She was upset, furious, enraged... The only problem was, she didn't know with whom she was most upset: Lieutenant Colonel Gary McKenna, who had started all this and then refused to listen to Jonathan when he tried to explain about Liam; Liam himself, who had told Sandoval about the vaile, and thus both destroyed a potentially useful tool for the Resistance and necessitated this trip; or Jonathan, who had flatly refused to give Liam and Sandoval the information on McKenna, and at the moment - his call to McKenna notwithstanding - didn't really seem to care about the threat the Colonel posed to both Liam and the Resistance.

"Ms. Palmer?" came a question from beside her, and Renee turned her head to look at Dr. Morneaux, the inventor of the vaile and the immediate reason she was on this plane.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked with a sigh.

"I was just wondering... How is it that this McKenna found out about the vaile and its properties?" the scientist inquired. "The only ones aside from myself, you and Mr. Doors who were aware of what we were researching were my team - all of whom passed your very stringent security tests. My team were all aware of the importance of this project to the Resistance, and would not have breathed a word of it to anyone."

"McKenna was an intelligence operative during the S.I. War, Doctor," Renee explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's an expert hacker, as well as being a very successful thief." Too late now to wish that she'd insisted on keeping the records of the vaile project only on computers that were completely isolated from the network.

Dr. Morneaux shook his head. "But all the information on the vaile was filed under fashion design - making it appear to be a low priority project, as per your instructions," he pointed out. "He should have had no reason to even look for those files. And how did he know what lab the vaile was stored in? That information was recorded nowhere except in our minds."

Renee frowned as she considered Dr. Morneaux's words. He was right; McKenna should have had no reason to bother with something like fashion design. Unless...

"So what you're suggesting," she started carefully, "is that he found out from someone? One of our own people told him about the vaile?"

Just then, the loudspeaker crackled to life. "Please be advised that we are currently beginning our descent to the Arctic research facility. Please ensure that your seatbelts are fastened and your seats are in their fully upright position. We hope you had a pleasant flight, and thank you for flying Doors International Airlines."

Renee rolled her eyes at the pilot's idea of humour and turned back to Dr. Morneaux. "Well?"

He shrugged in response. "I do not know for certain - I am not a security expert like yourself, Ms. Palmer."

Absolutely wonderful, Renee thought, returning her attention to the view outside the window. Now, not only has a valuable Resistance project been discovered and essentially counteracted before we could use it, but it appears that Doors International has a major security breach.

Jonathan's going to be livid...

Da'an was on the bridge of the mothership when Agent Sandoval called to say that he and Liam had finalized a plan to entrap the assassin.

When he first heard that, Da'an was quite relieved; it meant that the threat to Liam would soon be neutralized.

Then, as he listened to Agent Sandoval outline the plan the two Companion-Protectors had come up with, he found himself becoming more and more concerned. It seemed to him to be a very risky plan, relying quite heavily on that elusive Human commodity known as 'luck', rather than a sound, logical base.

And the way Liam was proposing to expose himself... Da'an still didn't care for the idea of using his Protector as bait. And judging from the expression on Agent Sandoval's face as that part of the plan was described, the human didn't care very much for it either.

"And you believe that this plan has a good chance of success?" Zo'or demanded.

"A reasonably good chance, yes," Agent Sandoval replied. "The location is not ideal, but we will have security stations concealed all along Major Kincaid's route, as well as the shuttle flying overhead. Corporal Roberts, who is the pilot, has already been given the information on how to bypass the vaile's effect on Taelon sensors. Those factors give us an edge; we will be prepared for almost every contingency."

Da'an was well aware that it was impossible to prepare for every single possibility, especially with a species that had the degree of individuality that humans did, but he still didn't like it.

"We'll get him," Liam added confidently.

"Good," Zo'or declared. "Then we are agreed. See to it, Agent Sandoval."

"Of course, Zo'or," Sandoval replied - it was his standard response, Da'an had noticed.

"Oh, Major Kincaid," Zo'or added then, before Agent Sandoval could end the call, "I have upgraded your security level in order that you might perform your new duties more efficiently."

"Thank you, Zo'or," Liam replied calmly, and then the call ended.

Da'an turned to look at Zo'or. This was the first he had heard of Liam being given new duties. "What new duties?" he demanded, his hands expressing his agitation. Zo'or may have been the Synod Leader, but Liam was Da'an's Protector, and he should have been consulted before Liam's status was changed.

"I do not know if you are aware of this, Da'an," Zo'or said, the comment a subtle insult, "but there have been a number of difficulties with the Volunteer pilots. Agent Sandoval suggested that Major Kincaid, as both a pilot and a Companion-Protector, would be the best person to deal with these problems. Therefore, I have arranged for him to be given command of the pilots."

Da'an was astonished - and confused - by this news. Yes, he had been aware of a decline in the quality of the Volunteer pilots' training, but his sense of the matter had been that it was a backlash against Captain Marquette's attempted destruction of the mothership, and would soon... blow over, the human expression was.

Admittedly, if examined in a certain light, Zo'or's decision to turn the pilots over to Liam made a great deal of sense. As he had pointed out, Liam was a pilot - an excellent one - and a Companion-Protector - who therefore outranked all of the other pilots, who were Volunteers and mothership crew members.

The problem was, Liam was still involved in the Resistance - and a position such as that could enable him to do a great deal of damage, as Captain Marquette had proven.

After a moment, Da'an decided that he would have to wait and see what happened. Despite his concern over the direction of Liam's loyalties, he still couldn't risk Zo'or or Agent Sandoval discovering the young man's true identity or his ties with the Resistance, so there was no way in which he could protest his Protector's sudden promotion. To do so would only invite suspicion.

However... "Major Kincaid is my Protector - I should have been consulted on this matter before a decision was made," Da'an pointed out; there were some things that he was unwilling to let Zo'or get away with, and this particular objection would not raise suspicion. In fact, Zo'or might find it suspicious if he didn't bring it up.

Zo'or's expression said quite clearly that he didn't care. "Agent Sandoval is in charge of the Volunteer program, under me," he replied, meeting Da'an's eyes calmly. "It was my decision, and I made it." With that, he turned the command chair away from Da'an in a very clear dismissal.

Da'an stared at his child's back for a moment, and then turned and walked off the bridge. He had a great deal to think about.